:N 


RGASSO  SEA 


.  ,       .    '/IE! 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 


a 


BY 


THOMAS  A.  JANVIER 

AUTHOR   OF 

"THE  UNCLE  OF  AN  ANGEL"  "THE  AZTKC  TREASURE-HOUSE 
"STORIES  OF  OLD  NEW  SPAIN"  ETC. 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
HARPER     &     BROTHERS     PUBLISHERS 

1898 


BY   THE  SAME   AUTHOR. 


THE  AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE.    A  Romance  of 
Contemporaneous  Antiquity.    Illustrated  by  FRKD- 
Eiuo  RKMINGTON.    Post  Svo,  Cloth,  $1  50. 
This  powerful  story  may  well  be  ranked  among  the 

wonder  books.    No  story-reader  should  miss  it,  for  it 

is  different  from  anything  he  has  ever  read.— Christian 

at  Work,  N.  Y. 

THE  UNCLE  OP  AN  ANGEL,  and  Other  Stories. 

Post  Svo,  Cloth,  $1  '25;  Paper,  50  cents. 

Janvier  stands  in  the  first  rank  as  a  writer  of  short 
stories,  and  a  new  volume  coining  from  him  is  sure  to 
meet  with  success.  In  the  present  instance  it  well  de 
serves  to.  for  the  stories  it  contains,  from  the  one  which 
gives  it  its  title  to  the  last  between  the  covers,  are  among 
his  best. — Christian  at  Work,  X.  Y. 

IN  OLD  NEW  YORK.    With  13  Maps  and  58  Illus 
trations.    Post  Svo,  Cloth,  $1  75. 
Overflows  with  all  sorts  of  minute  and  curious  infor 
mation  concerning  both  the  old  and  the  recent  town.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Janvier  has  long  been  a  zealous  and  sympathetic 
student  of  this  subject.     His  text  is  supplemented  with 
numerous  maps  and   illustrations,  instructive  and   in 
teresting. — N.  Y.  Sun.      

NEW    YORK    AND   LONDON  : 
HARPER  &   BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS. 


Copyright,  1898,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 


All  rightt  reitrved. 


TO 

C.  A.  J. 


M108223 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PACK 

I.  I  PAY  FOR  MY  PASSAGE  TO  LOANGO     ....  1 

II.  How  I  BOARDED  THE  BRIG  GOLDEN  HIND     .  8 

III.  I  HAVE  A  SCARE,  AND  GET  OVER  IT  ....  17 

IV.  CAPTAIN  LUKE  MAKES  ME  AN  OFFER  ....  25 
V.  I  GIVE  CAPTAIN  LUKE  MY  ANSWER    ....  36 

VI.  I  TIE  UP  MY  BROKEN  HEAD,  AND  TRY  TO  AT 
TRACT  ATTENTION 44 

VII.  I  ENCOUNTER  A  GOOD  DOCTOR  AND  A  VIOLENT 

GALE ' 52 

VIII.  THE  HURST  CASTLE  is  DONE  FOR 59 

IX.  ON  THE  EDGE  OF  THE  SARGASSO  SEA  ....  G6 

X.  I  TAKE  A  CHEERFUL  VIEW  OF  A  BAD  SITUATION  73 

XL  MY  GOOD  SPIRITS  ARE  WRUNG  OUT  OF  ME.     .  80 

XII.  I  HAVE  A  FEVER  AND  SEE  VISIONS 87 

XIII.  I  HEAR  A  STRANGE  CRY  IN  THE  NIGHT  ...  95 

XIV.  OF  MY  MEETING  WITH  A  MURDERED  MAN    .     .  103 
XV.  I  HAVE  SOME  TALK  WITH  A  MURDERER  ...  110 

XVI.  I  RID  MYSELF  OF  Two  DEAD  MEN 119 

XVII.  How  I  WALKED  MYSELF  INTO  A  MAZE    ...  126 

XVIII.  I  FIND  THE  KEY  TO  A  SEA  MYSTERY  ....  134 

XIX.  OF  A  GOOD  PLAN  THAT  WENT  WRONG  WITH  ME  142 
v 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGF 

XX.  How  I  SPENT  A  NIGHT  WEARILY  ....  150 
XXI.  MY   THIRST  is  QUENCHED,  AND  I  FIND  A 

COMPASS 157 

XXII.  I   GET   SOME   FOOD   IN   ME,  AND  FORM  A 

CRAZY  PLAN 164 

XXIII.  How  I  STARTED  ON  A  JOURNEY  DUE  NORTH  171 

XXIV.  OP   WHAT    I   FOUND  ABOARD  A   SPANISH 

GALLEON 178 

XXV.  I  AM  THE  MASTER  OP  A  GREAT  TREASURE  186 
XXVI.  OP  A  STRANGE  SIGHT  THAT  I  SAW  IN  THE 

NIGHT-TIME 192 

XXVII.  I  SET  MYSELF  TO  A  HEAVY  TASK  ....  199 

XXVIII.  How  I  RUBBED  SHOULDERS  WITH  DESPAIR  205 

XXIX.  I  GET  INTO  A  SEA  CHARNEL-HOUSE     ...  213 

XXX.  I  COME  TO  THE  WALL  OP  MY  SEA-PRISON  .  220 

XXXI.  How  HOPE  DIED  OUT  OP  MY  HEART      .     .  228 

XXXII.  I  FALL  IN  WITH  A  FELLOW-PRISONER     .     .  236 

XXXIII.  I  MAKE  A  GLAD  DISCOVERY 243 

XXXIV.  I  END  A  GOOD   JOB   WELL,   AND    GET   A 

SET-BACK 250 

XXXV.  I    AM   READY  FOR   A   FRESH  HAZARD   OF 

FORTUNE 260 

XXXVI.  How  MY  CAT  PROMISED  ME  GOOD  LUCK    .  268 

XXXVII.  How  MY  CAT  STILL  FARTHER  CHEERED  ME  275 
XXXVIII.  How   I  FOUGHT  MY  WAY  THROUGH  THE 

SARGASSO  WEED 280 

XXXIX.  WHY  MY  CAT  CALLED  OUT  TO  ME  286 


IN   THE    SABGASSO    SEA 


IN   THE   SARGASSO   SEA 


I    PAY    FOR    MY    PASSAGE   TO    LOANGQ, 

CAPTAIN  LUKE  CHILTON  counted  over  the  five- 
dollar  notes  with  a  greater  care  than  I  thought  was 
necessary,  considering  that  there  were  only  ten  of 
them ;  and  cautiously  examined  each  separate  one, 
as  though  he  feared  that  I  might  be  trying  to  pay 
for  my  passage  in  bad  money.  His  show  of  dis 
trust  set  my  back  up,  and  I  came  near  to  damning 
him  right  out  for  his  impudence — until  I  reflected 
that  a  West  Coast  trader  must  pretty  well  divide 
his  time  between  cheating  people  and  seeing  to  it 
that  he  isn't  cheated,  and  so  held  my  tongue. 

Having  satisfied  himself  that  the  tale  was  cor 
rect  and  that  the  notes  were  genuine,  he  brought 
out  from  the  inside  pocket  of  his  long-tailed  shore- 
going  coat  a  big  canvas  pocket-book,  into  which  he 
stowed  them  lengthwise ;  and  from  the  glimpse  I 
had  of  it  I  fancied  that  until  my  money  got  there 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

it  was  about  bare.  As  he  put  away  the  pocket- 
book,  he  said,  and  pleasantly  enough : 

"  You  see,  Mr.  Stet worth,  it's  this  way :  fifty 
dollars  is  dirt  cheap  for  a  cast  across  from  New 
York  to  the  Coast,  and  that's  a  fact ;  but  you  say 
that  it's  an  object  with  you  to  get  your  passage 
low,  and  I  say  that  even  at  that  price  I  can  make 
tnoney/buf /(j£  yjou.  The  Golden  Hind  has  got  to 
call  at  Loango,  anyhow ;  there's  a  spare  room  in 
;her  iabin  tha't^l)  be  empty  if  you  don't  fill  it ;  and 
while  you're  aoig  man  and  look  to  be  rather  extra 
hearty,  I  reckon  you  won't  eat  more'n  about  twenty 
dollars'  worth  of  victuals — counting  'em  at  cost — on 
the  \vliole  run.  But  the  main  thing  is  that  I  want 
all  the  spot  cash  I  can  get  a-holt  of  before  I  start. 
Fifty  dollars'  worth  of  trade  laid  in  now  means  five 
hundred  dollars  for  me  when  I  get  back  here  in 
New  York  with  what  I've  turned  it  over  for  on  the 
Coast.  So,  you  see,  if  you're  suited,  I'm  suited  too. 
Shake !  And  now  we'll  have  another  drink.  This 
time  it's  on  me." 

We  shook,  and  Captain  Luke  gave  me  an  honest 
enough  grip,  just  as  he  had  spoken  in  an  honest 
enough  tone.  I  knew,  of  course,  that  in  a  general 
way  he  must  be  a  good  deal  of  a  rascal — he  couldn't 
well  be  a  AVest  Coast  trader  and  be  anything 
else;  but  then  his  rascality  in  general  didn't  matter 
much  so  long  as  his  dealings  with  me  were  square. 
He  called  the  waiter  and  ordered  arrack  again — it 


I   PAY   FOR  MY   PASSAGE   TO  LOANGO 

was  the  most  wholesome  drink  in  the  world,  he 
said — and  we  touched  glasses,  and  so  brought  our 
deal  to  an  end. 

That  a  cheap  passage  to  Loan  go  was  an  object  to 
me,  as  Captain  Luke  had  said,  was  quite  true.  It 
was  a  very  important  object.  After  I  got  across, 
of  course,  and  my  pay  from  the  palm-oil  people  be 
gan,  I  would  be  all  right ;  but  until  I  could  touch 
my  salary  I  had  to  sail  mighty  close  to  the  wind. 
For  pretty  much  all  of  my  capital  consisted  of  my 
headful  of  knowledge  of  the  theory  and  practice  of 
mechanical  engineering  which  had  brought  me  out 
first  of  my  class  at  the  Stevens  Institute — and  in 
that  way  had  got  me  the  offer  from  the  palm-oil 
people — and  because  of  which  I  thought  that  there 
wasn't  anybody  quite  my  equal  anywhere  as  a  me 
chanical  engineer.  And  that  was  only  natural,  I 
suppose,  since  my  passing  first  hail  swelled  my 
head  a  bit,  and  I  was  only  three-and-twenty,  and 
more  or  less  of  a  promiscuously  green  young 
fool. 

As  I  looked  over  Captain  Luke's  shoulder,  while 
we  supped  our  arrack  together — out  through  the 
window  across  the  rush  and  bustle  of  South  Street — 
and  saw  a  trig  steamer  of  the  Maracaibo  line  lying 
at  her  dock,  I  could  not  but  be  sorry  that  my  voy 
age  to  Africa  would  be  made  under  sails.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  I  comforted  myself  by  thinking 
that  if  the  Golden  Hind  were  half  the  clipper  her 

3 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

captain  made  her  out  to  be  I  should  not  lose  much 
time — taking  into  account  the  roundabout  way  I 
should  have  to  go  if  I  went  under  steam.  And  I 
comforted  myself  still  more  by  thinking  what  a  lot  of 
money  I  had  saved  by  coming  on  this  chance  for  a 
cheap  cast  across ;  and  I  blessed  my  lucky  stars  for 
putting  into  my  head  the  notion  of  cruising  along 
South  Street  that  October  morning  and  asking 
every  sailor-like  man  I  met  if  he  knew  of  a  craft 
bound  for  the  West  Coast — and  especially  for  hav 
ing  run  me  up  against  Captain  Luke  Chilton  before 
my  cruise  had  lasted  an  hour. 

The  captain  looked  at  his  glass  so  sorrowfully 
when  it  was  empty  that  I  begged  him  to  have  it 
filled  again,  and  he  did.  But  he  took  down  his  ar 
rack  this  time  at  a  single  gulp,  and  then  got  up 
briskly  and  said  that  he  must  be  off. 

"  We  don't  sail  till  to-morrow  afternoon,  on  the 
half  flood,  Mr.  Stetworth,1'  he  said,  "  so  you'll  have 
lots  of  time  to  get  your  traps  aboard  if  you'll  take 
a  boat  off  from  the  Battery  about  noon.  I  wouldn't 
come  earlier  than  that,  if  I  were  you.  Things  are 
bound  to  be  in  a  mess  aboard  the  brig  to-morrow, 
and  the  less  you  have  of  it  the  better.  We  lie  well 
down  the  anchorage,  you  know,  only  a  little  this 
side  of  Bobbin's  Eeef.  Your  boatmen  will  know 
the  place,  and  they'll  find  the  brig  for  you  if  you'll 
tell  'em  where  to  look  for  her  and  that  she's  painted 
green.  Well,  so  long."  And  then  Captain  Luke 

4 


I  PAY   FOR  MY  PASSAGE  TO   LOANGO 

shook  hands  with  me  again,  and  so  was  off  into  the 
South  Street  crowd. 

I  hurried  away  too.  My  general  outiit  was 
bought  and  packed ;  but  the  things  lying  around 
ray  lodgings  had  to  be  got  together,  and  I  had  to 
buy  a  few  articles  in  the  way  of  sea-stock  for  my 
voyage  in  a  sailing  vessel  that  I  should  not  have 
needed  had  I  gone  by  the  regular  steam  lines.  So 
I  got  some  lunch  inside  of  me,  and  after  that  I  took 
a  cab — a  bit  of  extravagance  that  my  hurry  justi 
fied — and  bustled  about  from  shop  to  shop  and  got 
what  I  needed  inside  of  an  hour ;  and  then  I  told 
the  man  to  drive  me  to  my  lodgings  up-town. 

It  was  while  I  was  driving  up  Broadway — the 
first  quiet  moment  for  thinking  that  had  come  to 
me  since  I  had  met  Captain  Luke  on  South  Street, 
and  we  had  gone  into  the  saloon  together  to  settle 
about  the  passage  he  had  offered  me1 — that  all  of  a 
sudden  the  thought  struck  me  that  perhaps  I  had 
made  the  biggest  kind  of  a  fool  of  myself ;  and  it 
struck  so  hard  that  for  a  minute  or  two  I  fairly 
was  dizzy  and  faint. 

What  earthly  proof  had  I,  beyond  Captain  Luke's 
bare  word  for  it,  that  there  was  such  a  brig  as  the 
Golden  Hind?  What  proof  had  I  even — beyond 
the  general  look  of  him  and  his  canvas  pocket-book 
—that  Captain  Luke  was  a  sailor?  And  what 
proof  had  I,  supposing  that  there  was  such  a  brig 
and  that  he  was  a  sailor,  that  the  two  had  anything 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

to  do  with  each  other  ?  I  simply  had  accepted  for 
truth  all  that  he  told  me,  and  on  the  strength 
of  his  mere  assertion  that  he  was  a  ship-master 
and  was  about  to  sail  for  the  West  African 
coast  I  had  paid  him  my  fifty  dollars— and  had 
taken  by  way  of  receipt  for  it  no  more  than  a 
clinking  of  our  glasses  and  a  shake  of  his  hand.  I 
said  just  now  that  I  was  only  twenty-three  years 
old,  and  more  or  less  of  a  promiscuously  green 
young  fool.  I  suppose  that  I  might  as  well  have 
left  that  out.  There  are  some  things  that  tell  them 
selves. 

For  three  or  four  blocks,  as  I  drove  along,  I  was 
in  such  a  rage  with  rr^self  that  I  could  not  think 
clearly.  Then  I  began  to  cool  a  little,  and  to  hope 
that  I  had  gone  off  the  handle  too  suddenly  and 
too  far.  After  all,  there  were  some  chances  in  my 
favor  the  other  way.  Captain  Chilton,  I  remem 
bered,  had  told  me  that  he  was  about  to  sail  for 
West  Coast  ports  before  I  asked  him  for  a  passage ; 
and  had  mentioned,  also,  whereabouts  on  the  anch 
orage  the  Golden  Hind  was  lying.  Had  he  made 
these  statements  after  he  knew  what  I  wanted 
there  would  have  been  some  reason  for  doubt 
ing  them ;  but  being  made  on  general  principles, 
without  knowledge  of  what  I  was  after,  it  seemed 
to  me  that  they  very  well  might  be  true.  And  if 
they  were  true,  why  then  there  was  no  great 
cause  for  my  sudden  fit  of  alarm. 


I  PAY   FOR   MY  PASSAGE  TO   LOANGO 

However,  I  was  so  rattled  by  ray  fright,  and 
still  so  uncertain  as  to  bow  things  were  coming 
out  for  me,  that  the  thought  of  waiting  until  the 
next  afternoon  to  know  certainly  whether  I  had  or 
had  not  been  cheated  was  more  than  I  could  bear. 
The  only  way  that  I  could  see  to  settle  the  matter 
was  to  go  right  away  down  to  the  anchorage,  and 
so  satisfy  myself  that  the  Golden  Hind  was  a  real 
brig  and  really  was  lying  there ;  and  it  occurred  to 
me  that  I  might  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone,  and 
also  have  a  reason  to  give  for  a  visit  which  other 
wise  might  seem  unreasonable,  if  I  were  to  take 
down  my  luggage  and  put  it  aboard  that  very 
afternoon. 


II 

HOW    I    BOARDED    THE    BRIG    GOLDEN  HIXD 

HAVING  come  to  this  conclusion,  I  acted  on  it.  I 
kept  the  cab  at  the  door  while  I  finished  my  pack 
ing  with  a  rush,  and  then  piled  my  luggage  on  it 
and  in  it — and  what  with  my  two  trunks,  and  my 
kit  of  fine  tools,  and  all  my  bundles,  this  made 
tight  stowing — and  then  away  I  went  down-town 
again  as  fast  as  the  man  could  drive  with  such  a 
load. 

"We  got  to  the  Battery  in  a  little  more  than  an 
hour,  and  there  I  transshipped  my  cargo  to  a  pair- 
oared  boat  and  started  away  for  the  anchorage. 
The  boatmen  comforted  me  a  good  deal  at  the  out 
set  by  saying  that  they  thought  they  knew  just 
where  the  Golden  Hind  was  lying,  as  they  were 
pretty  sure  they  had  seen  her  only  that  morning 
while  going  down  the  harbor  with  another  fare ;  and 
before  we  were  much  more  than  past  Bedloe's  Island 
—having  pulled  well  over  to  get  out  of  the  channel 
and  the  danger  of  being  run  down  by  one  of  the 
swarm  of  passing  craft — they  made  my  mind  quite 
easy  by  actually  pointing  her  out  to  me.  But  al- 

8 


HOW   I    BOARDED    THE   BRIG 

most  in  the  same  moment  I  was  startled  again  by 
one  of  them  saying  to  me  :  "  I  don't  believe  you've 
much  time  to  spare,  captain.  There's  a  lighter  just 
shoved  off  from  her,  and  she's  gettin'  her  tops'ls 
loose.  I  guess  she  means  to  slide  out  on  this  tide. 
That  tug  seems  to  be  headin'  for  her  now." 

The  men  laid  to  their  oars  at  this,  and  it  was  a 
good  thing — or  a  bad  thing,  some  people  might 
think — that  they  did ;  for  had  we  lost  five  minutes 
on  our  pull  down  from  the  Battery  I  never  should 
have  got  aboard  of  the  Golden  Hind  at  all.  As  it 
was,  the  anchor  was  a-peak,  and  the  lines  of  the  tug 
made  fast,  by  the  time  that  we  rounded  under  her 
counter;  and  the  decks  were  so  full  of  the  bustle 
of  starting  that  it  was  only  a  chance  that  anybody 
heard  our  hail.  But  somebody  did  hear  it,  and  a 
man — it  was  the  mate,  as  I  found  out  afterwards — 
came  to  the  side. 

"  Hold  on,  captain,"  one  of  the  boatmen  sang 
out,  "  here's  your  passenger !" 

"  Go  to  hell !"  the  mate  answered,  and  turned 
inboard  again. 

But  just  then  I  caught  sight  of  Captain  Chilton, 
coming  aft  to  stand  by  the  wheel,  and  called  out  to 
him  by  name.  He  turned  in  a  hurry — and  with  a 
look  of  being  scared,  I  fancied — but  it  seemed  to 
me  a  good  half-minute  before  he  answered  me.  In 
this  time  the  men  had  shoved  the  boat  alongside 
and  had  made  fast  to  the  main-chains ;  and  just 

9 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

then  the  tug  began  to  puff  and  snort,  and  the  tow- 
line  lifted,  and  the  brig  slowly  began  to  gather 
way.  I  could  not  understand  what  they  were  up 
to  ;  but  the  boatmen,  who  were  quick  fellows,  took 
the  matter  into  their  own  hands,  and  began  to  pass 
in  my  boxes  over  the  gunwale — the  brig  lying  very 
low  in  the  water  —  as  we  moved  along.  This 
brought  the  mate  to  the  side  again,  with  a  rattle 
of  curses  and  orders  to  stand  off.  And  then  Cap 
tain  Chilton  came  along  himself — having  finished 
whatever  he  had  been  doing  in  the  way  of  thinking 
— and  gave  matters  a  more  reasonable  turn. 

"It's  all  right,  George,"  he  said  to  the  mate. 
"  This  gentleman  is  a  friend  of  mine  who's  going  out 
with  us  "  (the  mate  gave  him  a  queer  look  at  that), 
"  and  he's  got  here  just  in  time."  And  then  he 
turned  to  me  and  added :  "  I'd  given  you  up,  Mr. 
Stetworth,  and  that's  a  fact— concluding  that  the 
man  I  sent  to  your  lodgings  hadn't  found  you. 
We  had  to  sail  this  afternoon,  you  see,  all  in  a 
hurry ;  and  the  only  thing  I  could  do  was  to  rush 
a  man  after  you  to  bring  you  down.  He  seems  to 
have  overhauled  you  in  time,  even  if  it  was  a  close 
call — so  all's  well." 

While  he  was  talking  the  boatmen  were  passing 
aboard  my  boxes  and  bundles,  while  the  brig  went 
ahead  slowly ;  and  when  they  all  were  shipped, 
and  I  had  paid  the  men,  he  gave  me  his  hand  in  a 
friendly  way  and  helped  me  up  the  side. 

10 


HOW   I    BOARDED   THE    BRIG 

"What  to  make  of  it  all  I  could  not  tell.  Captain 
Luke  told  a  straight  enough  story,  and  the  fact 
that  his  messenger  had  not  got  to  me  before  I 
started  did  not  prove  that  he  lied.  Moreover,  he 
went  on  to  say  that  if  I  had  not  got  down  to  the 
brig  he  had  meant  to  leave  1113^  fifty  dollars  with 
the  palm-oil  people  at  Loango,  and  that  sounded 
square  enough  too.  At  any  rate,  if  he  were  lying 
to  me  I  had  no  way  of  proving  it  against  him,  and 
he  was  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  the  doubt ;  and  so, 
when  he  had  finished  explaining  matters — which 
was  short  work,  as  he  had  the  brig  to  look  after — 
I  did  not  see  my  way  to  refusing  his  suggestion 
that  we  should  call  it  all  right  and  shake  hands. 

For  the  next  three  hours  or  so — until  we  were 
clear  of  the  Hook  and  had  sea-room  and  the  tug  had 

o 

cast  us  off — I  was  left  to  my  own  devices :  except 
that  a  couple  of  men  were  detailed 'to  carry  to  my 
state-room  what  I  needed  there,  while  the  rest  of 
my  boxes  were  stowed  below.  Indeed,  nobody  had 
time  to  spare  me  a  single  word — the  captain  stand 
ing  by  the  wheel  in  charge  of  the  brig,  and  the 
two  mates  having  their  hands  full  in  driving  for 
ward  the  work  of  finishing  the  lading,  so  that  the 
hatches  might  be  on  and  things  in  some  sort  of  or 
der  before  the  crew  should  be  needed  to  make  sail. 
The  decks  everywhere  were  littered  with  the 
stuff  put  aboard  from  the  lighter  that  left  the  brig 
just  before  I  reached  her,  and  the  huddle  and  con- 

11 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

fusion  showed  that  the  transfer  must  have  been 
made  in  a  tearing  hurry.  Many  of  the  boxes  gave 
no  hint  of  what  was  inside  of  them ;  but  a  good  deal 
of  the  stuff — as  the  pigs  of  lead  and  cans  of  pow 
der,  the  many  five-gallon  kegs  of  spirits,  the  boxes 
of  fixed  ammunition,  the  cases  of  arms,  and  so  on— 
evidently  was  regular  "West  Coast  "trade."  And 
all  of  it  was  jumbled  together  just  as  it  had  been 
tumbled  aboard. 

I  was  surprised  by  our  starting  with  the  brig  in 
such  a  mess — until  it  occurred  to  me  that  the  cap 
tain  had  no  choice  in  the  matter  if  he  wanted 
to  save  the  tide.  Yery  likely  the  tide  did  enter 
into  his  calculations ;  but  I  was  led  to  believe  a  lit 
tle  later — and  all  the  more  because  of  his  scared 
look  when  I  hailed  him  from  the  boat  —  that  he 
had  run  into  some  tangle  on  shore  that  made  him 
want  to  get  away  in  a  hurry  before  the  law-officers 
should  bring  him  up  with  a  round  turn. 

What  put  this  notion  into  my  head  was  a  matter 
that  occurred  when  we  were  down  almost  to  the 
Hook,  and  its  conclusion  came  when  we  were  fair 
ly  outside  and  the  tug  had  cast  us  off ;  otherwise 
my  boxes  and  I  assuredly  would  have  gone  back 
on  the  tug  to  New  York — and  I  with  a  flea  in  my 
ear,  as  the  saying  is,  stinging  me  to  more  prudence 
in  my  dealings  with  chance-met  mariners  and  their 
offers  of  cheap  passages  on  strange  craft. 

When  we  were  nearly  across  the  lower  bay,  the 
12 


HOW    I   BOARDED   THE   BRIG 

nose  of  a  steamer  showed  in  the  Narrows ;  and  as 
she  swung  out  from  the  land  I  saw  that  she  flew 
the  revenue  flag.  Captain  Luke,  standing  aft  by 
the  wheel,  no  doubt  made  her  out  before  I  did  ;  for 
all  of  a  sudden  he  let  drive  a  volley  of  curses  at  the 
mates  to  hurry  their  stowing  below  of  the  stuff 
with  wrhich  our  decks  were  cluttered.  At  first  I 
did  not  associate  the  appearance  of  the  cutter  with 
this  outbreak ;  but  as  she  came  rattling  down  the 
bay  in  our  wake  I  could  not  but  notice  his  uneasi 
ness  as  he  kept  turning  to  look  at  her  and  then 
turning  forward  again  to  swear  at  the  slowness  of 
the  men.  But  she  was  a  long  way  astern  at  first, 
and  by  the  time  that  she  got  close  up  to  us  we  were 
fairly  outside  the  Hook  and  the  tug  had  cast  us  off 
—which  made  a  delay  in  the  stowing,  as  the  men 
had  to  be  called  away  from  it  to  set  enough  sail  to 
give  us  steerage  way. 

Captain  Luke  barely  gave  them  time  to  make 
fast  the  sheets  before  he  hurried  them  back  to  the 
hatch  again ;  and  by  that  time  the  cutter  had  so 
walked  up  to  us  that  we  had  her  close  aboard.  I 
could  see  that  he  fully  expected  her  to  hail  us ;  and 
I  could  see  also  that  there  seemed  to  be  a  feeling 
of  uneasiness  among  the  crew,  though  they  went 
on  briskly  with  their  work  of  getting  what  re 
mained  of  the  boxes  and  barrels  below.  And  then, 
being  close  under  our  stern,  the  cutter  quietly 
shifted  her  helm  to  clear  us — and  so  slid  past  us, 

13 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

without  hailing  and  with  scarcely  a  look  at  us,  and 
stood  on  out  to  sea. 

That  the  captain  and  all  hands  so  manifestly 
should  dread  being  overhauled  by  a  government 
vessel  greatly  increased  my  vague  doubts  as  to  the 
kind  of  company  that  I  had  got  into ;  and  at  the 
very  moment  that  the  cutter  passed  us  these 
doubts  were  so  nearly  resolved  into  bad  certainties 
that  my  thoughts  shot  around  from  speculation 
upon  Captain  Luke's  possible  perils  into  considera 
tion  of  what  seemed  to  be  very  real  perils  of  my 
own. 

With  the  cutter  close  aboard  of  us,  and  with  the 
captain  and  both  the  mates  swearing  at  them,  I 
suppose  that  the  men  at  the  hatch  —  who  were 
swinging  the  things  below  with  a  whip — got  rat 
tled  a  little.  At  any  rate,  some  of  them  rigged  the 
sling  so  carelessly  that  a  box  fell  out  from  it,  and 
shot  down  to  the  main-deck  with  such  a  bang  that 
it  burst  open.  It  was  a  small  and  strongly  made 
box,  that  from  its  shape  and  evident  weight  I  had 
fancied  might  have  arms  in  it.  But  when  it  split 
to  bits  that  way — the  noise  of  the  crash  drawing 
me  to  the  hatch  to  see  what  had  happened  —  its 
contents  proved  to  be  shackles  :  and  the  sight  of 
them,  and  the  flash  of  thought  which  made  me 
realize  what  they  must  be  there  for,  gave  me  a 
sudden  sick  feeling  in  my  inside ! 

In  my  hurried  reading  about  the  West  Coast — 
14 


HOW   I   BOARDED    THE    BRIG 

carried  on  at  odd  times  since  my  meeting  with  the 
palm-oil  people — I  had  learned  enough  about  the 
trade  carried  on  there  to  know  that  slaving  still 
was  a  part  of  it ;  but  so  small  a  part  that  the  mat 
ter  had  not  much  stuck  in  my  mind.  But  it  was  a 
fact  then  (as  it  also  is  a  fact  now)  that  the  traders 
who  run  along  the  coast — exchanging  such  stuff  as 
Captain  Luke  carried  for  ivory  and  coffee  and  hides 
and  whatever  offers — do  now  and  then  take  the 
chances  and  run  a  cargo  of  slaves  from  one  or 
another  of  the  lower  ports  into  Mogador :  where 
the  Arab  dealers  pay  such  prices  for  live  freight  in 
good  condition  as  to  make  the  venture  worth  the 
risk  that  it  involves.  This  traffic  is  not  so  barbar 
ous  as  the  old  traffic  to  America  used  to  be — when 
shippers  regularly  counted  upon  the  loss  of  a  third 
or  a  half  of  the  cargo  in  transit,  and  so  charged  off 
the  death-rate  against  profit  and  loss — for  the  run 
is  a  short  one,  and  slaves  are  so  hard  to  get  and  so 
dangerous  to  deal  in  nowadays  that  it  is  sound 
business  policy  to  take  enough  care  of  them  to  keep 
them  alive.  But  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  the  men 
engaged  in  the  Mogador  trade  are  about  the  worst 
brutes  afloat  in  our  time — not  excepting  the  island 
traders  of  the  South  Pacific  —  and  for  an  honest 
man  to  get  afloat  in  their  company  opens  to  him 
large  possibilities  of  being  murdered  off-hand,  with 
side  chances  of  sharing  in  their  punishment  if  he 
happens  to  be  with  them  when  they  are  caught. 

15 


IN   THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

And  so  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  when  I 
saw  the  shackles  come  flying  out  from  that  broken 
box,  and  so  realized  the  sort  of  men  I  had  for  ship 
mates,  that  a  sweating  fright  seized  me  which 
made  my  stomach  go  queer.  And  then,  as  I 
thought  how  I  had  tumbled  myself  into  this  scrape 
that  the  least  shred  of  prudence  would  have  kept 
me  out  of,  I  realized  for  the  second  time  that  day 
that  I  was  very  young  and  very  much  of  a  fool. 


Ill 

I   HAVE   A    SCAKE,   AND    GET   OVER   IT 

I  WENT  to  the  stern  of  the  brig  and  looked  at  the 
tug,  far  off  and  almost  out  of  sight  in  the  dusk, 
and  at  the  loom  of  the  Highlands,  above  which 
shone  the  light-house  lamps — and  my  heart  went 
down  into  my  boots,  and  for  a  while  stayed  there. 
For  a  moment  the  thought  came  into  my  head  to 
cut  away  the  buoy  lashed  to  the  rail  and  to  take 
my  chances  with  it  overboard — trusting  to  being 
picked  up  by  some  passing  vessel  and  so  set  safe 
ashore.  But  the  Alight  was  closing  down  fast  and 
a  lively  sea  was  running,  and  I  had  sense  enough 
to  perceive  that  leaving  the  brig  that  way  would 
be  about  the  same  as  getting  out  of  the  frying-pan 
into  the  fire. 

Fortunately,  in  a  little  while  I  began  to  get 
wholesomely  angry  ;  which  always  is  a  good  thing, 
I  think,  when  a  man  gets  into  a  tight  place — if  he 
don't  carry  it  too  far — since  it  rouses  the  fighting 
spirit  in  him  and  so  helps  him  to  pull  through. 
In  reason,  I  ought  to  have  been  angry  with  my 
self,  for  the  trouble  that  I  was  in  was  all  of  my  own 
B  17 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

making ;  but,  beyond  giving  myself  a  passing  kick 
or  two,  all  my  anger  was  turned  upon  Captain 
Luke  for  taking  advantage  of  my  greenness  to 
land  me  in  such  a  pickle  when  his  gain  from  it 
would  be  so  small.  I  know  now  that  I  did  Captain 
Luke  injustice.  His  subsequent  conduct  showed 
that  he  did  not  want  me  aboard  with  him  any 
more  than  I  wanted  to  be  there.  Had  I  not  taken 
matters  into  my  own  hands  by  boarding  the  brig 
in  such  a  desperate  hurry — just  as  I  had  hurried 
to  close  with  his  offer  and  to  clinch  it  by  paying 
down  my  passage-money  —  he  would  have  gone 
off  without  me.  And  very  likely  he  would  have 
thought  that  the  lesson  in  worldly  wisdom  he  had 
given  me  was  only  fairly  paid  for  by  the  fifty 
dollars  which  had  jumped  so  easily  out  of  my 
pocket  into  his. 

But  that  was  not  the  way  I  looked  at  the  matter 
then;  and  in  my  heart  I  cursed  Captain  Luke  up 
hill  and  down  dale  for  having,  as  I  fancied,  lured 
me  aboard  the  brig  and  so  into  peril  of  my  skin. 
And  my  anger  was  so  strong  that  I  went  by  turns 

«/  O  O  *J 

hot  and  cold  with  it,  and  itched  to  get  at  Captain 
Luke  with  my  fists  and  give  him  a  dressing — 
which  I  very  well  could  have  done,  had  we  come 
to  fighting,  for  I  was  a  bigger  man  than  he  was 
and  a  stronger  man,  too. 

It  is  rather  absurd  as  I  look  back  at  it,  consider 
ing  what  a  taking  I  was  in  and  how  strong  was 

18 


I   HAVE    A    SCARE,  AND    GET  OVER   IT 

my  desire  just  then  to  punch  Captain  Luke's  head 
for  him,  that  while  I  was  at  the  top  of  my  rage  he 
came  aft  to  where  I  was  leaning  against  the  rail 
and  put  his  hand  on  my  shoulder  as  friendly  as 
possible  and  asked  me  to  come  down  into  the  cabin 
to  supper.  I  suppose  I  had  a  queer  pale  look,  be 
cause  of  my  anger,  for  he  said  not  to  mind  if  I  did 
feel  sickish,  but  to  eat  all  the  same  and  I  would  feel 
better  for  it ;  and  he  really  was  so  cordial  and  so 
pleasant  that  for  a  moment  or  two  I  could  not 
answer  him.  It  was  upsetting,  when  I  was  so  full 
of  fight,  to  have  him  come  at  me  in  that  friendly 
way ;  and  I  must  say  that  I  felt  rather  sheepish, 
and  wondered  whether  I  had  not  been  working 
myself  up  over  a  mare's-nest  as  I  followed  him 
below. 

We  had  the  rrfate  to  supper  with  us,  at  a  square 
table  in  the  middle  of  the  cabin,  and  at  breakfast 
the  next  morning  we  had  the  second  mate ;  and  so 
it  went  turn  and  turn  with  them  at  meals — except 
that  they  had  some  sort  of  dog-watch  way  about 
the  Saturday  night  and  Sunday  morning  that  al 
ways  gave  the  mate  his  Sunday  dinner  with  the 
captain,  as  was  the  due  of  his  rank. 

The  mate  was  a  surly  brute,  and  when  Captain 
Chilton  said,  in  quite  a  formal  way,  "  Mr.  Roger 
Stetworth,  let  me  make  you  acquainted  with  Mr. 
George  Hinds,"  he  only  grunted  and  gave  me  a 
sort  of  a  nod.  He  did  not  have  much  to  say  while 

19 


IN  THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

the  supper  went  on,  speaking  only  when  the  cap 
tain  spoke  to  him,  and  then  shortly;  but  from  time 
to  time  he  snatched  a  mighty  sharp  look  at  me — 
that  I  pretended  not  to  notice,  but  saw  well  enough 
out  of  the  tail  of  my  eye.  It  was  plain  enough 
that  he  was  taking  my  measure,  and  I  even  fancied 
that  he  would  have  been  better  pleased  had  I  been 
six  inches  or  so  shorter  and  Avith  less  well-made 
shoulders  and  arms.  When  he  did  speak  it  was  in 
a  growling  rumble  of  a  voice,  and  he  swore  natu 
rally. 

Captain  Luke  evidently  tried  to  make  up  for  the 
mate's  surliness;  and  he  really  was  very  pleasant 
indeed — telling  me  stories  about  the  Coast,  and  giv 
ing  me  good  advice  about  guarding  against  sick 
ness  there,  and  showing  such  an  interest  in  my 
prospects  with  the  palm-oil  people,  and  in  my  wel 
fare  generally,  that  I  was  still  more  inclined  to 
think  that  my  scare  about  the  shackles  was  only 
foolishness  from  first  to  last.  He  seemed  to  be 
really  pleased  when  he  found  that  I  was  not  sea 
sick,  and  interested  when  I  told  him  how  well  I 
knew  the  sea  and  the  management  of  small  craft 
from  my  sailing  in  the  waters  about  Xantucket 
every  summer  for  so  many  years  ;  and  then  we  got 
to  talking  about  the  Coast  again  and  about  my 
outfit  for  it,  which  he  said  was  a  very  good  one ; 
and  he  especially  commended  me — instead  of  laugh 
ing  at  me,  as  I  was  afraid  he  would — for  having 

20 


I  HAVE  A  SCARE,  AND  GET  OVER  IT 

brought  along  such  a  lot  of  quinine.  Indeed,  the 
quinine  seemed  to  make  a  good  deal  of  an  impres 
sion  on  him,  for  he  turned  to  the  mate  and  said : 
"  Do  you  hear  that,  George  ?  Mr.  Stetworth  has 
with  him  a  whole  case  of  quinine — enough  to  serve 
a  ship's  company  through  a  cruise."  And  the 
mate  rumbled  out,  as  he  got  up  from  the  table 
and  started  for  the  deck,  that  quinine  was  a 
damned  good  thing. 

We  waited  below  until  the  second  mate  came 
down,  to  whom  the  captain  introduced  me  with  his 
regular  formula :  "  Mr.  Roger  Stetworth,  let  me 
make  you  acquainted  with  Mr.  Martin  Bowers." 
He  was  a  young  fellow,  of  no  more  than  my  own 
age,  and  I  took  a  fancy  to  him  at  sight — for  he  not 
only  shook  my  hand  heartily  but  he  looked  me 
squarely  in  the  eyes,  and  that  is  a  thing  I  like  a 
man  to  do.  It  seemed  to  me  that  my  being  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  a  puzzle  to  him ;  and  he  also 
took  my  measure,  but  quite  frankly — telling  me 
when  he  had  looked  me  over  that  if  I  knew  how 
to  steer  I'd  be  a  good  man  to  have  at  the  wheel  in 
a  gale. 

The  captain  brought  out  a  bottle  of  his  favorite 
arrack,  and  he  and  I  had  a  glass  together — in  which, 
as  I  thought  rather  hard,  Bowers  was  not  given  a 
chance  to  join  us — and  then  we  went  on  deck  and 
walked  up  and  down  for  a  while,  smoking  our 
pipes  and  talking  about  the  weather  and  the  pros- 

21 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

pects  for  the  voyage.  And  it  all  went  so  easily 
and  so  pleasantly  that  I  couldn't  help  laughing  a 
little  to  myself  over  my  scare. 

I  turned  in  early,  for  I  was  pretty  well  tired 
after  so  lively  a  day  ;  but  when  I  got  into  my  bunk 
I  could  not  get  to  sleep  for  a  long  while — although 
the  bunk  was  a  good  one  and  the  easy  motion  of 
the  brig  lulled  me — for  the  excitement  I  was  in  be 
cause  my  voyage  fairly  was  begun.  I  slipped 
through  my  mind  all  that  had  happened  to  me 
that  day — from  my  meeting  with  Captain  Luke  in 
the  forenoon  until  there  I  was,  at  nine  o'clock  at 
night,  fairly  out  at  sea ;  and  I  was  so  pleased  with 
the  series  of  lucky  chances  which  had  put  me  on 
my  way  so  rapidly  that  my  one  mischance — my 
scare  about  the  shackles — seemed  utterly  absurd. 

It  was  perfectly  reasonable,  I  reflected,  for  Cap 
tain  Luke  to  carry  out  a  lot  of  shackles  simply  as 
"  trade."  It  was  pretty  dirty  "  trade,"  of  course, 
but  so  was  the  vile  so-called  brandy  he  was  carry 
ing  out  with  him  ;  and  so,  for  that  matter,  were  the 
arms — which  pretty  certainly  would  be  used  in  slav 
ing  forays  up  from  the  Coast.  And  even  suppos 
ing  the  very  worst — that  Captain  Luke  meant  to 
ship  a  cargo  of  slaves  himself  and  had  these  irons 
ready  for  them — that  worst  would  come  after  I  was 
out  of  the  brigand  done  with  her;  the  captain  hav 
ing  told  me  that  Loango,  which  was  my  landing- 
place,  would  be  his  first  port  of  call.  When  I  was 

22 


I  HAVE  A  SCARE,  AND  GET  OVER  IT 

well  quit  of  the  Golden  Hind  she  and  her  crew  and 
her  captain,  for  all  that  I  cared,  might  all  go  to  the 
devil  together.  It  was  enough  for  me  that  I  should 
be  well  treated  on  the  voyage  over ;  and  from  the 
way  that  the  voyage  had  begun — unless  the  surly 
mate  and  I  might  have  a  bit  of  a  flare-up  —  it 
looked  as  though  I  were  going  to  be  very  well 
treated  indeed.  And  so,  having  come  to  this  com 
forting  conclusion,  I  let  the  soft  motion  of  the  brig 
have  its  way  with  me  and  began  to  snooze. 

A  little  later  I  was  partly  aroused  by  the  sound  of 
steps  coming  down  the  corn  pan  ion- way  ;  and  then 
by  hearing,  in  the  mate's  rumble,  these  words :  "  I 
guess  you're  right,  captain.  As  you  had  to  run  for 
it  to-day  before  you  could  buy  our  quinine,  it's  a 
damn  good  thing  he  did  get  aboard,  after  all !" 

I  was  too  nearly  asleep  to  pay  much  attention  to 
this,  but  in  a  drowsy  way  I  felt  glad  'that  my  stock 
of  quinine  had  removed  the  mate's  objections  to  me 
as  a  passenger  ;  and  I  concluded  that  my  purchase 
of  such  an  absurd  lot  of  it — after  getting  worked  up 
by  my  reading  about  the  West  Coast  fevers — had 
turned  out  to  be  a  good  thing  for  me  in  the  long- 
run. 

After  that  the  talk  went  on  in  the  cabin  for  a 
good  while,  but  in  such  low  tones  that  even  had  I 
been  wide  awake  I  could  not  have  followed  it. 
But  I  kept  dozing  off,  catching  only  a  word  or  two 
now  and  then  ;  and  the  only  whole  sentence  I  heard 

23 


IN    THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

was  in  the  mate's  rumble  again :  "  Well,  if  we  can't 
square  things,  there's  always  room  for  one  more  in 
the  sea." 

It  all  was  very  dream-like— and  fitted  into  a  dream 
that  came  later,  in  the  light  sleep  of  early  morning, 
I  suppose,  in  which  the  mate  wore  the  uniform  of 
a  street-car  conductor,  and  I  was  giving  him  doses 
of  quinine,  and  he  was  asking  the  passengers  in  a 
car  full  of  salt-water  to  move  up  and  make  room 
for  me,  and  was  telling  them  and  me  that  in  a  sea- 
car  there  always  was  room  for  one  more. 


IV 

CAPTAIN    LUKE   MAKES    ME    AN   OFFEE 

DURING  the  next  fortnight  or  so  my  life  on  board 
the  brig  was  as  pleasant  as  it  well  could  be.  On 
the  first  day  out  we  got  a  slant  of  wind  that  held 
by  us  until  it  had  carried  us  fairly  into  the  north 
east  trades — and  then  away  we  went  on  our  course, 
with  everything  set  and  drawing  steady^  and  noth 
ing  much  to  do  but  man  the  wheel  and  eat  three 
square  meals  a  day. 

And  so  everybody  was  in  a  good  humor,  from 
the  captain  down.  Even  the  mate  rumbled  what 
he  meant  to  be  a  civil  w^ord  to  me  now  and  then  ; 
and  Bowers  and  I — being  nearly  of  an  age,  and  each 
of  us  with  his  foot  on  the  first  round  of  the  ladder- 
struck  up  a  friendship  that  kept  us  talking  away 
together  by  the  hour  at  a  time  :  and  very  frankly, 
except  that  he  was  shy  of  saying  anything  about 
the  brig  and  her  doings,  and  whenever  I  tried  to 
draw  him  on  that  course  got  flurried  a  little  and 
held  off.  But  in  all  other  matters  he  was  open ; 
and  especially  delighted  in  running  on  about  ships 

25 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

and  seafaring — for  the  man  was  a  born  sailor  and 
loved  his  profession  with  all  his  heart. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  talks  with  Bowers  that  I 
got  my  first  knowledge  of  the  Sargasso  Sea — about 
which  I  shortly  was  to  know  a  great  deal  more 
than  he  did:  that  old  sea-wonder  which  puzzled 
and  scared  Columbus  when  he  coasted  it  on  his 
way  to  discover  America;  and  which  continued  to 
puzzle  all  mariners  until  modern  nautical  science 
revealed  its  cause— yet  still  left  it  a  good  deal  of 
a  mystery — almost  in  our  own  times. 

The  subject  came  up  one  day  while  we  were 
crossing  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  the  sea  all  around 
us  was  pretty  well  covered  with  patches  of  yellow 
weed — having  much  the  look  of  mustard-plasters — 
amidst  which  a  bit  of  a  barnacled  spar  bobbed 
along  slowly  near  us,  and  not  far  off  a  new  pine 
plank.  The  yellow  stuff,  Bowers  said,  was  gulf- 
weed,  brought  up  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  where 
the  Stream  had  its  beginning;  and  that,  thick 
though  it  was  around  us,  this  was  nothing  to  the 
thickness  of  it  in  the  part  of  the  ocean  where  the 
Stream  (so  he  put  it,  not  knowing  any  better)  had 
its  end.  And  to  that  same  place,  he  added,  the 
Stream  carried  all  that  was  caught  in  its  current — 
like  the  spar  and  the  plank  floating  near  us — so 
that  the  sea  was  covered  with  a  thick  tangle  of  the 
weed  in  which  was  held  fast  fragments  of  wreck 
age,  and  stuff  washed  overboard,  and  logs  adrift 

20 


CAPTAIN  LUKE  MAKES  ME  AN  OFFER 

from  far-off  southern  shores,  until  in  its  central 
part  the  mass  was  so  dense  that  no  ship  could  sail 
through  it,  nor  could  a  steamer  traverse  it  because 
of  the  fouling  of  her  screw.  And  this  sort  of  float 
ing  island — which  lay  in  a  general  way  between  the 
Bermudas  and  the  Canaries — covered  an  area  of 
ocean,  he  said,  half  as  big  as  the  area  of  the  United 
States ;  and  to  clear  it  ships  had  to  make  a  wide  de 
tour — for  even  in  its  thin  outward  edges  a  vessel's 
way  was  a  good  deal  retarded  and  a  steamer's 
wheel  would  foul  sometimes,  and  there  was  danger 

o 

always  of  collision  with  derelicts  drifting  in  from 
the  open  sea  to  become  a  part  of  the  central  mass. 
Our  own  course,  he  further  said,  would  be  changed 
because  of  it ;  but  we  would  be  for  a  while  upon 
what  might  be  called  its  coast,  and  so  I  would  have 
a  chance  to  see  for  myself  something  of  its  look  as 
we  sailed  along. 

As  I  know  now,  Bowers  over-estimated  the  size 
of  this  strange  island  of  sea-waifs  and  sea-weed  by 
nearly  one-half ;  and  he  was  partly  wrong  as  to  the 
making  of  it :  for  the  Sargasso  Sea  is  not  where  any 
current  ends,  but  lies  in  that  currentless  region  of 
the  ocean  that  is  found  to  the  east  of  the  main  Gulf 
Stream  and  to  the  south  of  the  branch  which 
sweeps  across  the  North  Atlantic  to  the  Azores ; 
and  its  floating  stuff  is  matter  cast  off  from  the 
Gulf  Stream's  edge  into  the  bordering  still  water 
— as  a  river  eddies  into  its  pools  twigs  and  dead 

27 


IN    THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

leaves  and  such -like  small  flotsam — and  there  is 
compacted  by  capillary  attraction  and  by  the  slow 
strong  pressure  of  the  winds. 

On  the  whole,  though,  Bowers  was  not  very 
much  off  in  his  description — which  somehow  took  a 
queer  deep  hold  upon  me,  and  especially  set  me  to 
wondering  what  strange  old  waifs  and  strays  of  the 
ocean  might  not  be  found  in  the  thick  of  that 
tangle  if  only  there  were  some  wa}r  of  pushing 
into  it  and  reaching  the  hidden  depths  that  no  man 
ever  yet  had  seen.  But  when  I  put  this  view  of 
the  matter  to  him  I  did  not  get  much  sympathy. 
He  was  a  practical  young  man,  without  a  stitch  of 
romance  in  his  whole  make-up,  and  he  only  laughed 
at  my  suggestion  and  said  that  anybody  who  tried 
to  push  into  that  mess  just  for  the  sake  of  seeing 
some  barnacle-covered  logs,  or  perhaps  a  rotting 
hulk  or  two,  would  be  a  good  deal  of  a  fool.  And 
so  I  did  not  press  my  fancy  on  him,  and  our  talks 
went  on  about  more  commonplace  things. 

It  was  with  Captain  Luke  that  I  had  most  to  do, 
and  before  long  I  got  to  have  a  very  friendly  feel 
ing  for  him  because  of  the  trouble  that  he  took  to 
make  me  comfortable  and  to  help  me  pass  the  time. 
The  first  day  out,  seeing  that  I  was  interested  when 
he  took  the  sun,  he  turned  the  sextant  over  to  me 
and  showed  me  how  to  take  an  observation ;  and 
then  how  to  work  it  out  and  fix  the  brig's  position 
on  the  chart — and  was  a  good  deal  surprised  by  my 

28 


CAPTAIN  LUKE  MAKES  ME  AN  OFFER 

quickness  in  understanding  his  explanations  (for  I 
suppose  that  to  him,  with  his  rule-of -thumb  knowl 
edge  of  mathematics,  the  matter  seemed  complex), 
and  still  more  surprised  when  he  found,  presently, 
that  I  really  understood  the  underlying  principle  of 
this  simple  bit  of  seamanship  far  better  than  he  did 
himself.  He  said  that  I  knew  more  than  most  of 
the  captains  afloat  and  that  I  ought  to  be  a  sailor ; 
which  he  meant,  no  doubt,  to  be  the  greatest  com 
pliment  that  he  could  pay  me.  After  that  I  took 
the  sights  and  worked  them  with  him  daily  ;  and 
as  I  several  times  corrected  his  calculations — for 
even  simple  addition  and  subtraction  were  more 
than  he  could  manage  with  certainty — he  became 
so  impressed  by  my  knowledge  as  to  treat  me  with 
an  odd  show  of  respect. 

But  in  practical  matters — knowledge  of  men  and 
things,  and  of  the  many  places  about  the  world 
which  he  had  seen,  and  of  the  management  of  a 
ship  in  all  weathers — he  was  one  of  the  best-in 
formed  men  that  ever  I  came  across :  being  natu 
rally  of  a  hard-headed  make,  with  great  acuteness 
of  observation,  and  with  quick  and  sound  reasoning 
powers.  I  found  his  talk  ahvays  worth  listening 
to ;  and  I  liked  nothing  better  than  to  sit  beside  him, 
or  to  walk  the  deck  with  him,  while  we  smoked  our 
pipes  together  and  he  told  me  in  his  shrewd  way 
about  one  queer  thing  and  another  which  he  had 
come  upon  in  various  parts  of  the  world — for  he  had 

29 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

followed  the  sea  from  the  time  that  he  was  a  boy, 
and  there  did  not  seem  to  be  a  bit  of  coast  country 
nor  any  part  of  all  the  oceans  which  he  did  not 
know  well. 

Unlike  Bowers,  he  was  very  free  in  talking  about 
the  trade  that  he  carried  on  in  the  brig  upon  the 
African  coast,  and  quite  astonished  me  by  his  show 
ing  of  the  profits  that  he  made ;  and  he  generally 
ended  his  discourses  on  this  head  by  laughingly 
contrasting  the  amount  of  money  that  even  Bowers 
got  every  year — the  mates  being  allowed  an  inter 
est  in  the  brig's  earnings — with  the  salary  that  the 
palm-oil  people  were  to  pay  to  me.  Indeed,  he 
managed  to  make  me  quite  discontented  with  my 
prospects,  although  I  had  thought  them  very  good 
indeed  when  I  first  told  him  about  them  ;  and 
when  he  would  say  jokingly,  as  he  very  often  did, 
that  I  had  better  drop  the  palm-oil  people  and  take 
a  berth  on  the  brig  instead,  I  would  be  half  sorry 
that  he  was  only  in  fun. 

In  a  serious  way,  too,  he  told  me  that  the  Coast 
trade  had  got  very  unfairly  a  bad  name  that  it  did 
not  deserve.  At  one  time,  he  said,  a  great  many 
hard  characters  had  got  into  it,  and  their  doings 
had  given  it  a  black  reputation  that  still  stuck  to  it. 
But  in  recent  years,  he  explained,  it  had  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  a  better  class  of  traders,  and  its  tone 
had  been  greatly  improved.  As  a  rule,  he  declared, 
the  West  Coast  traders  were  as  decent  men  as 

30 


CAPTAIN  LUKE  MAKES  ME  AN  OFFER 

would  be  found  anywhere — not  saints,  perhaps,  he 
said  smilingly,  but  men  who  played  a  reasonably 
square  game  and  who  got  big  money  mainly  be 
cause  they  took  big  risks.  When  I  asked  him 
what  sort  of  risks,  he  answered :  "  Oh,  pretty  much 
all  sorts — sometimes  your  pocket  and  sometimes 
your  neck,"  and  added  that  to  a  man  of  spirit  these 
risks  made  half  the  fun.  And  then  he  said  that 
for  a  man  who  did  not  care  for  that  sort  of  thing  it 
was  better  to  be  contented  with  a  safe  place  and 
low  wages — and  asked  me  how  long  I  expected  to 
stay  at  Loango,  and  if  I  had  a  better  job  ahead 
when  my  work  there  was  done. 

At  first  he  would  shift  the  subject  when  I  tried 
to  make  him  talk  about  the  slave  traffic.  But  one 
day — it  was  toward  the  end  of  our  second  week  out, 
and  I  was  beginning  to  think  from  his  constant 
turning  to  it  that  perhaps  he  really  might  mean  to 
offer  me  a  berth  on  the  brig,  and  that  his  offer 
might  be  pretty  well  worth  accepting — he  all  of  a 
sudden  spoke  out  freely  and  of  his  own  accord.  It 
was  true,  he  said,  that  sometimes  a  few  blacks 
were  taken  aboard  by  traders,  when  no  other  stuff 
offered  for  barter,  and  were  carried  up  to  Mogador 
and  there  sold  for  very  high  prices  indeed — for 
there  was  a  prejudice  against  the  business,  and  the 
naval  vessels  on  the  Coast  tried  so  persistently  to 
stop  it  that  the  risk  of  capture  was  great  and  the 
profit  from  a  successful  venture  correspondingly 

31 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

large.  But  the  prejudice,  be  continued,  was  really 
not  well-founded.  Slavery,  of  course,  was  a  very 
bad  thing;  but  there  were  degrees  of  badness  in  it, 
and  since  it  could  not  be  broken  up  there  was  much 
to  be  said  in  favor  of  any  course  that  would  make 
it  less  cruel.  The  blacks  who  were  the  slaves  of 
other  blacks,  or  of  Portuguese, — and  it  was  only 
these  that  the  traders  bought — were  exposed  to 
such  barbarous  treatment  that  it  was  a  charity  to 
rescue  them  from  it  on  almost  any  terms.  Cer 
tainly  it  was  for  their  good,  as  they  had  to  be  in 
bondage  somewhere,  to  deliver  them  from  such 
masters  by  carrying  them  away  to  Northern  Africa : 
where  the  slavery  was  of  so  mild  and  paternal  a  sort 
that  cruelty  almost  was  unknown.  And  then  he 
went  on  to  tell  me  about  the  kindly  relations  which 
he  himself  had  seen  existing  between  slaves  and 
their  masters  in  those  parts,  both  among  Arabs  and 
Moors. 

This  presentment  of  the  case  put  so  new  a  face 
on  it  that  at  first  I  could  not  get  my  bearings; 
which  lam  the  less  ashamed  to  own  up  to  because, 
as  I  look  at  the  matter  now,  I  perceive  how  much 
trouble  Captain  Luke  took  to  win  me  for  his  own 
purposes — he  being  a  middle-aged  man  packed  full 
of  shrewd  worldly  wisdom,  and  I  only  a  fresh  young 
fool. 

My  hesitation  about  making  up  an  answer  to 
him — for,  while  I  was  sure  that  in  the  main  point 

32 


CAPTAIN  LUKE  MAKES  ME  AN  OFFER 

he  was  all  wrong,  I  was  caught  for  the  moment  in 
his  sophisms — made  him  fancy,  I  suppose,  that  he 
had  convinced  me  ;  and  so  was  safe  to  go  ahead  in 
the  way  that  he  had  intended,  no  doubt,  all  along. 
At  any  rate,  without  stopping  until  my  slow  wits 
had  a  chance  to  get  pulled  together,  he  put  on  a 
great  show  of  friendly  frankness  and  said  that  he 
now  knew  me  well  enough  to  trust  me,  and  so 
would  tell  me  openly  that  he  himself  engaged  in 
the  Mogador  trade  when  occasion  offered ;  and  that 
there  was  more  money  in  it  a  dozen  times  over 
than  in  all  the  other  trade  that  he  carried  on  in  the 
Golden  Hind. 

I  confess  that  this  avowal  completely  staggered 
me,  and  with  a  rush  brought  back  all  th,e  fears  by 
which  I  had  been  so  rattled  on  the  first  day  of  our 
voyage.  In  a  hazy  way  I  perceived  that  the  cap 
tain  had  been  playing  a  part  with  me,  and  that  the 
others  had  been  playing  parts  too — for  I  could  not 
hope  that  among  men  of  that  stripe  such  friendli 
ness  should  be  natural — and  what  with  my  surprise, 
and  the  fresh  fright  I  was  thrown  into,  I  was  struck 
fairly  dumb. 

But  Captain  Luke — likely  enough  deceived  by  his 
own  hopes,  as  even  shrewd  men  will  be  sometimes — 
either  did  not  notice  the  fluster  I  was  in,  or 
thought  to  set  matters  all  right  with  me  in  his  own 
way ;  for  when  he  found  that  I  remained  silent  he 
took  up  the  talk  himself  again,  and  went  on  to 
c  33 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

show  in  detail  the  profits  of  a  single'  venture  with  a 

live    cargo — and    his    figures   were    certainly   big 

enough  to  fire  the  fancy  of  any  man  who  was  keen 

for  money-getting  and  who  was  willing  to  get  his 

money  by  rotten  ways.     And  then,  when  he  had 

finished  with  this  part  of  the  matter,  he  came  out 

plumply  with  the  offer  to  give  me  a  mate's  rating 

on  board  the  brig  if  I  would  cast  in  my  fortunes 

with  his.     Of  the  theory  of  seamanship,  he  said,  I 

already  knew  more  than  he  did  himself;   and  so 

much  more  than  either  of  his  mates  that  he  would 

feel  entirely  at  ease — as  he  could  not  with  them — 

in  trusting  the  navigation  of  the  brig  in  my  hands. 

As  to  the  practical  part  of  the  work,  that  was  a 

matter  that  with  my  quickness  I  would  pick  up  in 

no  time  ;  and  my  bigness  and  strength,  he  added, 

would  come  in  mighty  handily  when   there   was 

trouble  among  the  crew,  as  sometimes  happened, 

and  in  keeping  the  blacks  in  order,  and  in  the  little 

fights  that  now  and  then  were  necessary  with  folks 

on  shore.     And  then  he  came  to  the  real  kernel  of 

the  matter :  which  was  that  Bowers  did  not  like  his 

work  and  was  not  fit  for  it,  and  was  threatening 

to  leave  the  brig  at  the  first  port  she  made,  and  so 

a  man  who  could  be  trusted  was  badly  needed  to 

take  his  place. 

When  he  had  finished  with  it  all  I  was  dumber 
than  ever ;  for  I  was  in  a  rage  at  him  for  making 
me  such  an  offer,  and  at  the  same  time  saw  pretty 

34 


CAPTAIN  LUKE  MAKES  ME  AN  OFFER 

clearly  that  if  I  refused  it  as  plumply  as  he  made  it 
we  should  come  to  such  open  enmity  that  I — being 
in  his  power  completely — would  be  in  danger  of 
my  skin.  And  so  I  was  glad  when  he  gave  me  a 
breathing  spell,  and  the  chance  to  think  things 
over  quietly,  by  telling  me  that  he  would  not  hurry 
me  for  answer  and  that  I  could  take  a  day  or  two 
—or  a  week  or  two  if  I  wanted  it — in  which  to 
make  up  my  mind. 


I   GIVE    CAPTAIN    LUKE   MY    ANSWER 

FOR  the  rest  of  that  day,  and  for  the  two  da}7s 
following,  Captain  Luke  did  not  in  any  way  refer 
to  his  offer;  and  as  he  showed  himself  more  than 
ever  friendly,  and  talked  away  to  me  in  his  usual 
entertaining  fashion,  my  rage  and  fright  began  to 
go  off  a  little — though  at  bottom,  of  course,  there 
was  no  change  in  my  opinions,  nor  any  doubt  as  to 
my  giving  him  a  point-blank  refusal  when  the 
issue  should  be  squarely  raised. 

All  this  time  the  brig  was  bowling  along  down 
the  trades ;  and  on  the  third  morning  after  I  had 
the  captain's  offer — we  being  then  close  upon  the 
thirty -fifth  parallel  of  north  latitude  —  Bowers 
called  my  attention  to  the  gulf-w^eed  floating 
about  us,  and  told  me  that  we  were  fairly  on  the 
outer  edge  of  the  Sargasso  Sea.  We  should  not 
get  into  any  thicker  part  of  it,  he  said,  as  we 
should  bear  up  to  clear  it ;  and  so  we  actually  did, 
hauling  away  a  good  deal  to  the  eastward  when 
the  brig's  course  was  set  that  day  at  noon.  But 
my  interest  in  the  matter  had  been  so  checked — 

36 


I   GIVE    CAPTAIN    LUKE    MY    ANSWER 

all  my  thought  being  given  to  finding  some  way 
out  of  the  pickle  in  which  I  found  myself — that  I 
paid  little  attention  to  the  patches  of  yellow  weed 
on  the  water  around  us  or  to  the  bits  of  wreckage 
that  we  saw  now  and  then  ;  and  when  Bowers, 
keeping  on  with  his  talk,  fell  to  chaffing  me  about 
my  desire  to  make  a  voyage  of  discovery  into  the 
thick  part  of  this  floating  mystery  I  did  not  rise  to 
his  joking,  nor  did  I  make  him  much  of  a  reply. 

Indeed,  I  was  in  rather  a  low  way  that  day : 
which  was  due  in  part  to  my  not  being  able,  for 
all  my  thinking,  to  see  any  sort  of  a  clear  course 
before  me ;  and  in  part  to  the  fact  that  the  weath 
er  was  thickening  and  that  my  spirits  were  dulled 
a  good  deal  by  what  we  call  the  heaviness  of  the 
air.  All  around  the  horizon  steel-gray  clouds  were 
rising,  and  a  soft  sort  of  a  haze  hung  about  us  and 
took  the  life  out  of  the  sunshine,  and  the  wind  fell 
away  until  there  was  almost  nothing  of  it,  and 
that  little  fitful — while  with  the  dying  out  of  it 
the  sea  began  to  stir  slowly  with  a  long  oily  swell. 
Far  down  to  the  southeast  a  line  of  smoke  hung 
along  the  horizon,  coming  from  the  funnel  of  some 
steamer  out  of  sight  over  the  ocean's  curve,  and 
the  heaviness  of  the  atmosphere  was  shown  by  the 
way  that  this  smoke  held  close  to  the  surface  of 
the  sea. 

That  Captain  Luke  did  not  like  the  look  of 
things  was  plain  enough  from  his  sharp  glances 

37 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

about  him  and  from  his  frequent  examinations  of 
the  glass ;  and  he  seemed  to  be  all  the  more  both 
ered — his  seaman's  instinct  that  a  storm  was  brew 
ing  being  at  odds  with  the  barometer's  prophecy— 
by  the  fact  that  the  mercury  showed  a  marked 
tendency  to  rise.  Had  he  known  as  much  of  the 
scientific  side  of  navigation  as  he  kne\v  of  the  prac 
tical  side  he  could  have  reconciled  the  conduct  of 
the  barometer  with  his  own  convictions,  and  so 
would  have  been  easier  in  his  mind;  for  it  is  a  fact 
that  the  mercury  often  rises  suddenly  on.  the  front 
edge  of  a  storm— that  is  to  say,  a  little  in  advance 
of  it — by  reason  of  the  air  banking  up  there.  But 
having  only  his  rule-of-thumb  knowledge  to  apply 
in  the  premises,  the  apparent  scientific  contradiction 
of  his  own  practical  notions  as  to  what  was  going 
to  happen  confused  him  and  made  him  irritable — 
the  nerve-stirring  state  of  the  atmosphere  no  doubt 
having  also  a  share  in  the  matter — as  was  made 
plain  by  his  sharp  quick  motions,  and  by  the  way 
in  which  on  the  smallest  provocation  he  fell  to 
swearing  at  the  men.  And  so  the  day  wore  itself 
out  to  nightfall:  with  the  steel-gray  clouds  lifting 
steadily  from  the  horizon  toward  the  zenith,  and 
with  the  swell  of  the  weed-spattered  sea  slowly 
rising,  and  with  a  doubting  uneasiness  among  all 
of  us  that  found  its  most  marked  expression  in 
Captain  Luke's  increasingly  savage  mood. 
Our  supper  was  a  glowering  one.  The  captain 
38 


I    GIVE    CAPTAIN    LUKE    MY    ANSWER 

had  little  to  say,  and  that  little  of  a  sharp  sort, 
while  the  mate  only  rumbled  out  a  curse  now  and 
then  at  the  boy  who  served  us ;  and  I  myself  was 
in  a  bitter  bad  humor  as  I  thought  how  hard  it 
was  on  me  to  be  shut  up  at  sea  in  such  vile  com 
pany,  and  how  I  had  only  myself  to  blame  for 
getting  into  it — and  found  my  case  all  the  harder 
because  of  my  nervous  uneasiness  due  to  the  com 
ing  storm.  As  to  the  storm,  there  no  longer  could 
be  doubt  about  it,  for  the  barometer  had  got  into 
line  with  Captain  Luke's  convictions  and  was  fall 
ing  fast. 

When  the  supper  was  over  the  captain  brought 
out  his  arrack-bottle  and  took  off  a  full  tumbler, 
which  was  more  than  double  his  usual  allowance, 
and  then  pushed  the  liquor  across  to  the  mate  and 
me.  The  mate  also  took  a  good  pull  at  it,  and  I 
took  a  fair  drink  myself  in  the  hope  that  it  would 
quiet  my  nerves— but  it  had  exactly  the  opposite 
effect  and  made  me  both  excited  and  cross.  And 
then  we  all  came  on  deck  together,  and  all  in  a 
rouo-h  humor,  and  Bowers  went  down  into  the 

o 

cabin  to  have  his  supper  by  himself. 

What  happened  in  the  next  half-hour  happened 
so  quickly  that  I  cannot  give  a  very  clear  account 
of  it.  A  part  of  it,  no  doubt,  was  due  to  mere 
chance  and  angry  impulse ;  but  not  the  whole  of  it, 
and  I  think  not  the  worst  of  it — for  the  first  thing 
that  the  captain  did  was  to  order  the  man  who  was 

p,9 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

steering  to  go  forward  and  to  tell  the  mate  to  take 
the  wheel.  That  left  just  the  three  of  us  together 
at  the  stern  of  the  brig— with  Bowers  below  and 
so  out  of  sight  and  hearing,  and  with  all  the  crew 
completely  cutoff  from  us  and  put  out  of  sight  and 
hearing  by  the  rise  of  the  cabin  above  the  deck. 

Night  had  settled  down  on  the  ocean,  but  not 
darkness.  Far  off  to  the  eastward  the  full  moon 
was  standing  well  above  the  horizon  and  was  fight 
ing  her  way  upward  through  the  clouds— now  and 
then  getting  enough  the  better  of  them  to  send 
down  a  dash  of  brightness  on  the  water,  but  for 
the  most  part  making  only  a  faint  twilight  through 
their  gloom.  The  wind  still  was  very  light  and 
fitful,  but  broken  by  strongish  puffs  which  would 
heel  the  brig  over  a  little  and  send  her  along 
sharply  for  half  a  mile  or  so  before  they  died 
away ;  and  the  swell  had  so  risen  that  we  had  a 
long  sleepy  roll.  Up  to  windward  I  made  out  a 
ship's  lights — that  seemed  to  be  coming  down  on 
us  rapidly,  from  their  steady  brightening— and  I 
concluded  that  this  must  be  the  steamer  from 
which  the  smoke  had  come  that  I  had  seen  trail 
ing  along  the  horizon  through  the  afternoon ;  and 
I  even  fancied,  the  night  being  intensely  still,  that 
I  could  hear  across  the  water  the  soft  purring 
sound  made  by  the  steady  churning  of  her  wheel. 
Somehow  it  deepened  the  sullen  anger  that  had 
hold  of  me  to  see  so  close  by  a  ship  having  honest 

40 


I    GIVE   CAPTAIN   LUKE   MY   ANSWER 

men  aboard  of  her,  and  to  know  at  the  same  time 
how  hopelessly  fast  I  was  tied  to  the  brig  and  her 
dirty  crew.  I  don't  mind  saying  that  the  tears 
?ame  to  my  eyes,  for  I  was  both  hurt  by  my  sor 
row  and  heavy  with  my  dull  rage. 

We  all  three  were  silent  for  a  matter  of  ten  min 
utes  or  so,  or  it  might  even  have  been  longer,  and 
then  Captain  Luke  faced  around  on  me  suddenly 
and  asked  :  "Well,  have  you  made  up  your  mind?" 

Had  I  been  cooler  I  should  have  tried  to  fence  a 
little,  since  my  only  resource — I  being  caught  like 
a  rat  in  a  trap  that  way — was  to  try  to  gain  time ; 
but  I  was  all  in  a  quiver,  just  as  I  suppose  he  was, 
with  the  excitement  of  the  situation  and  with  the 
excitement  of  the  thunderous  night,  and  his  short 
sharp  question  jostled  out  of  my  head  what  few 
wits  I  had  there  and  made  me  throw  away  my 
only  chance.  And  so  I  answered  him,  just  as 
shortly  and  as  sharply  :  "  Yes,  I  have." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  join  the  brig  ?"  he  demanded. 

"No,  I  don't,"  I  answered,  and  .stepped  a  little 
closer  to  him  and  looked  him  squarely  in  the  eyes. 

"  I  told  you  so,"  the  mate  broke  in  with  his 
rumble ;  and  I  saw  that  he  was  whipping  a  light 
lashing  on  the  wheel  in  a  way  that  would  hold  it 
steady  in  case  he  wanted  to  let  go. 

"Better  think  a  minute,"  said  Captain  Luke, 
speaking  coolly  enough,  but  still  with  an  angry 
undertone  in  his  voice.  "  I've  made  you  a  good 

41 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

offer,  and  I'm  ready  to  stand  by  it.  But  if  you 
won't  take  what  I've  offered  you  you'll  take  some 
thing  else  that  you  won't  like,  my  fresh  young  man. 
In  a  friendly  way,  and  for  your  information,  I've 
told  you  a  lot  of  things  that  I  can't  trust  to  the 
keeping  of  any  living  man  who  won't  chip  in  with 
us  and  take  our  chances— the  bad  ones  with  the 
good  ones— just  as  they  happen  to  come  along. 
You  know  too  much,  now,  for  me  to  part  company 
from  you  while  you  have  a  wagging  tongue  in 
your  head  —  and  so  my  offer's  still  open  to  you. 
Only  there's  this  about  it:  if  you  won't  take  it, 
overboard  you  go." 

I  had  a  little  gleam  of  sense  at  that;  for  I  knew 
that  he  spoke  in  dead  earnest,  and  that  the  mate 
stood  ready  to  back  him,  and  that  against  the  two 
of  them  I  had  not  much  show.  And  so  I  tried  to 
play  for  time,  saying:  "  Well,  let  me  think  it  over  a 
bit  longer.  You  said  there  was  no  hurry  and  that 
I  might  have  a  week  to  consider  in.  I've  had  only 
three  days,  so  far.  Do  you  call  that  square  ?" 

"  Squareness  be  damned,"  rumbled  the  mate,  and 
he  gave  a  look  aloft  and  another  to  windward— the 
breeze  just  then  had  fallen  to  a  mere  whisper — and 
took  his  hands  off  the  wheel  and  stepped  away 
from  it  so  that  he  and  the  captain  were  close  in 
front  of  me,  side  by  side.  I  stood  off  from  them  a 
little,  and  got  my  back  against  the  cabin — that  I 
might  be  safe  against  an  attack  from  behind— 

42 


I    GIVE    CAPTAIN    LUKE    MY   ANSWER 

and  I  was  so  furiously  angry  that  I  forgot  to  be 
scared. 

"  Three  days  is  as  good  as  three  years,"  Captain 
Luke  jerked  out.  "What  I  want  is  an  answer 
right  now.  Will  you  join  the  brig — yes  or  no  ?" 

Somehow  I  remembered  just  then  seeing  our  pig 
killed,  when  I  was  a  boy — how  he  ran  around  the 
lot  with  the  men  after  him,  and  got  into  a  corner 
and  tried  to  fight  them,  and  was  caught  in  spite  of 
his  poor  little  show  of  fighting,  and  was  rolled  over 
on  his  back  and  had  his  throat  stuck.  He  was  a 
nice  pig,  and  I  had  felt  sorry  for  him :  thinking  that 
he  didn't  deserve  such  treatment,  his  life  having 
been  a  respectable  one,  and  he  never  having  done 
anybody  any  harm.  It  all  came  back- to  me  in  a 
flash,  as  I  settled  myself  well  against  the  cabin  and 
answered  :  "  No,  I  won't  join  you — and  you  and 
your  brig  may  go  to  hell !" 

All  I  remember  after  that  was  their  rush  to 
gether  upon  me,  and  my  hitting  out  two  or  three 
times — getting  in  one  smasher  on  the  mate's  jaw 
that  \vas  a  comfort  to  me — and  then  something  hard 
cracking  me  on  the  head,  and  so  stunning  me  that  I 
knew  nothing  at  all  of  what  happened  until  I  found 
myself  coming  up  to  the  surface  of  the  sea,  sputter 
ing  salt-water  and  partly  tangled  in  a  bunch  of 
gulf-weed,  and  saw  the  brig  heeling  over  and  slid 
ing  fast  away  from  me  before  a  sudden  strong 


draught  of  wind. 


43 


VI 


I   TIE    UP   MY    BROKEN    HEAD,  AND    TEY    TO   ATTEACT 

ATTENTION 

MY  head  was  tingling  with  pain,  and  so  buzzy  that 
I  had  no  sense  worth  speaking  of,  but  just  kept  my 
self  afloat  in  an  instinctive  sort  of  way  by  paddling 
a  little  with  my  hands.  And  I  could  not  see  well 
for  what  I  thought  was  water  in  my  eyes — until  I 
found  that  it  was  blood  running  down  over  my 
forehead  from  a  gash  in  my  scalp  that  went  from 
the  top  of  my  right  ear  pretty  nearly  to  my  crown. 
Had  the  blow  that  made  it  struck  fair  it  certainly 
would  have  finished  me ;  but  from  the  way  that  the 
scalp  was  cut  loose  the  blow  must  have  glanced. 

The  chill  of  the  water  freshened  me  and  brought 
my  senses  back  a  little :  for  which  I  was  not  espe 
cially  thankful  at  first,  being  in  such  pain  and 
misery  that  to  drown  without  knowing  much  about 
it  seemed  quite  the  best  thing  that  I  could  hope  for 
just  then.  Indeed,  when  I  began  to  think  again, 
though  not  very  clearly,  I  had  half  a  mind  to  drop 
my  arms  to  my  sides  and  so  go  under  and  have 
done  with  it— so  despairing  was  I  as  I  bobbed  about 

44 


I   TIE   UP   MY   BROKEN   HEAD 

on  the  swell  among  the  patches  of  gulf-weed  which 
littered  the  dark  ocean,  with  the  brig  drawing  away 
from,  me  rapidly,  and  no  chance  of  a  rescue  from 
her  even  had  she  been  near  at  hand. 

Whether  I  had  or  had  not  hurried  the  matter, 
under  I  certainly  should  have  gone  shortly — for  the 
crack  on  my  head  and  the  loss  of  blood  from  it  had 
taken  most  of  my  strength  out  of  me,  and  even  with 
my  full  strength  I  could  not  have  kept  afloat  long — 
had  not  a  break  in  the  clouds  let  through  a  dash  of 
moonlight  that  gave  me  another  chance.  It  was 
only  for  a  moment  or  two  that  the  moonlight  lasted, 
yet  long  enough  for  me  to  make  out  within  a  hun 
dred  feet  of  me  a  biggish  piece  of  wreckage — which 
but  for  that  flash  I  should  not  have  noticed,  or  in 
the  dimness  would  have  taken  only  for  a  bunch  of 
weed. 

Near  though  it  was,  getting  to  it  was  almost 
more  than  I  could  manage  ;  and  when  at  last  I  did 
reach  it  I  was  so  nearly  used  up  that  I  barely 
had  strength  to  throw  my  arms  about  it  and  one 
leg  over  it,  and  so  hang  fast  for  a  good  many  min 
utes  in  a  half-swoon  of  weakness  and  pain. 

But  the  feel  of  something  solid  under  me,  and 
the  certainty  that  for  a  little  while  at  least  I  was 
safe  from  drowning,  helped  me  to  pull  myself  to 
gether  ;  and  before  long  some  of  my  strength 
came  back,  and  a.  little  of  my  spirit  with  it,  and 
I  went  about  settling  myself  more  securely  on  my 

45 


IN   THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

poor  sort  of  a  raft.  What  I  had  hit  upon,  I  found, 
was  a  good  part  of  a  ship's  mast ;  with  the  yards  still 
holding  fast  by  it  and  steadying  it,  and  all  so  clean- 
looking  that  it  evidently  had  not  been  in  the  water 
long.  The  main-top,  I  saw,  would  give  me  a  back 
to  lean  against  and  also  a  little  shelter;  and  in 
that  nook  I  would  be  still  more  secure  because  the 
futtock-shrouds  made  a  sort  of  cage  about  it  and 
gave  me  something  to  catch  fast  to  should  the 
swell  of  the  sea  roll  me  off.  So  I  worked  along 
the  mast  from  where  I  first  had  caught  hold  of  it 
until  I  got  myself  stowed  away  under  the  main 
top:  where  I  had  my  body  fairly  out  of  water, 
and  a  chance  to  rest  easily  by  leaning  against  the 
up-standing  woodwork,  and  a  good  grip  with  my 
legs  to  keep  me  firm.  And  it  is  true,  though  it 
don't  sound  so,  that  I  was  almost  happy  at  finding 
myself  so  snug  and  safe  there— as  it  seemed  after 
having  nothing  under  me  but  the  sea. 

And  then  I  set  myself— my  head  hurting  me 
cruelly,  and  the  flow  of  blood  still  bothering  me— 
to  see  what  I  could  do  in  the  way  of  binding  up 
my  wound  ;  and  made  a  pretty  good  job  of  it, 
having  a  big  silk  handkerchief  in  my  pocket  that 
I  folded  into  a  smooth  bandage  and  passed  over 
my  crown  and  under  my  chin— after  first  dowsing 
my  head  in  the  cold  sea-water,  which  set  the  cut 
to  smarting  like  fury  but  helped  to  keep  the  blood 
from  flowing  after  the  bandage  was  made  fast. 


I   TIE   UP   MY   BROKEN   HEAD 

At  first,  while  I  was  paddling  in  the  water  and 
splashing  my  way  along  the  mast  and  while  the 
bandage  was  flapping  about  my  ears,  I  had  no 
chance  to  hear  any  noises  save  those  little  ones 
close  to  me  which  I  was  making  myself.  But 
when  I  had  finished  my  rough  surgery,  and  leaned 
back  against  the  top  to  rest  after  it — and  my  heart 
was  beginning  to  sink  with  the  thought  of  how 
utterly  desperate  my  case  was,  afloat  there  on  the 
open  ocean  with  a  gale  coming  on  —  I  heard  in 
the  deep  silence  a  faint  rythmic  sound  that  I 
recognized  instantly  as  the  pulsing  of  a  steamer's 
engine  and  the  steady  churning  of  her  screw. 
This  mere  Avhisper  in  the  darkness  was  a  very  little 
thing  to  hang  a  hope  upon  ;  but  hope  did  return 
to  me  with  the  conviction  that  the  sound  came 
from  the  steamer  of  which  I  had  seen  the  lights 
just  before  I  was  pitched  overboard,  and  that  I 
had  a  chance  of  her  passing  near  enough  to  me  to 
hear  my  hail. 

I  peered  eagerly  over  the  wafers,  trying  to 
make  out  her  lights  again  and  so  settle  how  she 
was  heading;  but  I  could  see  no  lights,  though 
with  each  passing  minute  the  beating  of  the  screw 
sounded  louder  to  my  straining  ears.  From  that 
I  concluded  that  she  must  be  coming  up  behind 
me  and  was  hid  by  the  top  from  me ;  and  so, 
slowly  and  painfully,  I  managed  to  get  on  my  hands 
and  knees  on  the  mast,  and  then  to  raise  myself 

47 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

until  I  stood  erect  and  could  see  over  the  edge  of 
the  top  as  it  rose  like  a  little  wall  upright — and 
gave  a  weak  shout  of  joy  as  I  saw  what  I  was 
looking  for,  the  three  bright  points  against  the 
blackness,  not  more  than  a  mile  away.  And  I 
was  all  the  more  hopeful  because  her  red  and  green 
lights  showed  full  on  each  side  of  the  white  light 
on  her  foremast,  and  by  that  I  knew  that  she  was 
heading  for  me  as  straight  as  she  could  steer. 

I  gave  another  little  shout — but  fainter  than  the 
first,  for  my  struggle  to  get  to  my  feet,  and  then 
to  hold  myself  erect  as  the  swell  rolled  the  mast 
about,  made  me  weak  and  a  little  giddy ;  and  I 
wanted  to  keep  on  shouting — but  had  the  sense 
not  to,  that  I  might  save  my  strength  for  the  yells 
that  I  should  have  to  give  when  the  steamer  got 
near  enough  to  me  for  her  people  to  hear  iny  cries. 
So  I  stood  silent — swaying  with  the  roll  of  the 
mast,  and  with  my  head  throbbing  horribly  be 
cause  of  my  excitement  and  the  strain  of  holding 
on  there — while  I  watched  her  bearing  down  on 
me;  and  making  her  out  so  plainly  as  she  got 
closer  that  it  never  occurred  to  me  that  I  and  my 
bit  of  mast  would  not  be  just  as  plain  to  her  people 
as  her  great  bulk  was  to  me. 

I  don't  suppose  that  she  was  within  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  of  me  when  I  began  my  yelling;  but  I 
was  too  much  worked  up  to  wait  longer,  and  the 
result  of  my  hurry  was  to  make  my  voice  very 

48 


I   TIE   UP   MY   BROKEN    HEAD 

hoarse  and  feeble  by  the  time  that  she  really  was 
within  hail.  She  came  dashing  along  so  straight 
for  me  that  I  suddenly  got  into  a  tremor  of  fear 
that  she  would  run  me  down ;  and,  indeed,  she 
only  cleared  me  by  fifty  feet  or  so — her  huge  black 
hull,  dotted  with  the  bright  lights  of  her  cabin 
ports,  sliding  past  me  so  close  that  she  seemed  to 
tower  right  up  over  me — and  I  was  near  to  being 
swamped,  so  violently  was  my  mast  tossed  about 
by  the  rush  and  suck  of  the  water  from  her  big 
screw.  And  while  she  hung  over  me,  and  until 
she  was  gone  past  me  and  clear  out  of  all  hearing, 
I  yelled  and  yelled ! 

At  first  I  could  not  believe,  so  sure  had  I  been 
of  my  rescue,  that  she  had  left  me ;  and  it  was  not 
until  she  was  a  good  half  mile  away  from  me,  with 
only  the  sound  of  her  screw  ripping  the  water,  and 
a  faint  gleam  of  light  from  her  after  ports  showing 
through  the  darkness,  that  I  realized  that  she  was 
gone — and  then  I  grew  so  sick  and  dizzy  that  it  is 
a  wonder  I  did  not  lose  my  hold ^  altogether  and 
fall  off  into  the  sea.  Somehow  or  another  I  man 
aged  to  swing  myself  down  and  to  seat  myself 
upon  the  mast  again,  with  my  head  fairly  splitting 
and  with  my  heart  altogether  gone :  and  so  rested 
there,  shutting  my  eyes  to  hide  the  sight  of  my 
hope  vanishing,  and  as  desolate  as  any  man  ever 
was. 

Presently,  in  a  dull  way,  I  noticed  that  I  no 
D  49 


VII 

I  ENCOFNTEE   A   GOOD   DOCTOR   AND   A   VIOLENT   GALE 

I  WAS  roused  from  my  sleep  by  the  sharp  motion 
of  the  vessel;  but  did  not  get  very  wide  awake, 
for  I  felt  donsie  and  there  was  a  dull  ringing  in 
my  head  along  with  a  great  dull  pain.  I  had  sense 
enough,  though,  to  perceive  that  the  storm  had 
come,  about  which  Captain  Luke  and  the  barom 
eter  had  been  at  odds ;  and  to  shake  a  little  with 
a  creepy  terror  as  I  thought  of  the  short  work  it 
would  have  made  with  me  had  I  waited  for  it  on 
my  mast.  But  I  was  too  much  hurt  to  feel  any 
thing  very  keenly,  and  so  heavy  that  even  with  the 
quick  short  roll  of  the  ship  to  rouse  me  I  kept 
pretty  much  in  a  doze. 

After  a  while  the  door  of  my  state-room  was 
opened  a  little  and  a  man  peeped  in ;  and  when  he 
saw  my  open  eyes  looking  at  him  he  came  in  alto 
gether,  giving  me  a  nod  and  a  smile.  He  was  a 
tall  fellow  in  a  blue  uniform,  with  a  face  that  I 
liked  the  looks  of;  and  when  he  spoke  to  me  I 
liked  the  sound  of  his  voice. 

"  You  must  be  after  being  own  cousin  to  all  the 
52 


I  ENCOUNTER  A  DOCTOR  AND  A  GALE 

Seven  Sleepers  of  Ephesus  and  the  dog  too,  my  big 
young  man,''  he  said,  holding  fast  to  the  upper  berth 
to  steady  himself.  "  You've  put  in  ten  solid  hours, 
so  far,  and  you  don't  seem  to  be  over  Avide  awake 
yet.  Faith,  I'd  be  after  backing  you  to  sleep  stand 
ing,  like  Father  O'Rafferty's  old  dun  cow !" 

I  did  no^feel  up  to  answering  him,  but  I  man 
aged  to  grin  a  little,  and  he  went  on :  "I'm  for 
thinking  that  I'd  better  let  that  broken  head  of 
yours  alone  till  this  fool  of  a  ship  is  sitting  still 
again — instead  of  try  ing  to  teach  the  porpoises  such 
tricks  of  rolling  and  pitching  as  never  entered  into 
their  poor  brute  minds.  But  you'll  do  without 
doctoring  for  the  present,  myself  having  last  night 
sewed  up  all  right  and  tight  for  you  the  bit  of 
your  scalp  that  had  fetched  away.  How  does  it 
feel?" 

"  It  hurts,"  was  all  that  I  could  answer. 

"  And  small  blame  to  it,"  said  the  doctor,  and 
went  on :  "  It's  a  well-made  thick  head  you  have, 
and  its  tough  you  are,  my  son,  not(to  be  killed  en 
tirely  by  such  a  whack  as  you  got  on  your  brain- 
box — to  say  nothing  of  your  fancy  for  trying  to 
cure  it  hydropathically  by  taking  it  into  the  sea 
with  you  when  you  were  for  crossing  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  on  the  fag-end  of  a  mast.  It's  much  indeed 
that  you  have  to  learn,  I  am  thinking,  both  about 
surgery  and  about  taking  care  of  yourself.  But  in 
the  former  you'll  now  do  well,  being  in  the  com- 

53 


VII 

I  ENCOUNTER   A   GOOD   DOCTOR   AND   A   VIOLENT   GALE 

I  WAS  roused  from  my  sleep  by  the  sharp  motion 
of  the  vessel;  but  did  not  get  very  wide  awake, 
for  I  felt  donsie  and  there  was  a  dull  ringing  in 
my  head  along  with  a  great  dull  pain.  I  had  sense 
enough,  though,  to  perceive  that  the  storm  had 
come,  about  which  Captain  Luke  and  the  barom 
eter  had  been  at  odds ;  and  to  shake  a  little  with 
a  creepy  terror  as  I  thought  of  the  short  work  it 
would  have  made  with  me  had  I  waited  for  it  on 
my  mast.  But  I  was  too  much  hurt  to  feel  any 
thing  very  keenly,  and  so  heavy  that  even  with  the 
quick  short  roll  of  the  ship  to  rouse  me  I  kept 
pretty  much  in  a  doze. 

After  a  while  the  door  of  my  state-room  was 
opened  a  little  and  a  man  peeped  in ;  and  when  he 
saw  my  open  eyes  looking  at  him  he  came  in  alto 
gether,  giving  me  a  nod  and  a  smile.  He  was  a 
tall  fellow  in  a  blue  uniform,  with  a  face  that  I 
liked  the  looks  of;  and  when  he  spoke  to  me  I 
liked  the  sound  of  his  voice. 

"  You  must  be  after  being  own  cousin  to  all  the 

52 


I  ENCOUNTER  A  DOCTOR  AND  A  GALE 

Seven  Sleepers  of  Ephesus  and  the  dog  too,  my  big 
young  man,'-  he  said,  holding  fast  to  the  upper  berth 
to  steady  himself.  "  You've  put  in  ten  solid  hours, 
so  far,  and  you  don't  seem  to  be  over  wide  awake 
yet.  Faith,  I'd  be  after  backing  you  to  sleep  stand 
ing,  like  Father  O'Raiferty's  old  dun  cow !" 

I  did  not  feel  up  to  answering  him,  but  I  man 
aged  to  grin  a  little,  and  he  went  on :  "  I'm  for 
thinking  that  I'd  better  let  that  broken  head  of 
yours  alone  till  this  fool  of  a  ship  is  sitting  still 
again — instead  of  try  ing  to  teach  the  porpoises  such 
tricks  of  rolling  and  pitching  as  never  entered  into 
their  poor  brute  minds.  But  you'll  do  without 
doctoring  for  the  present,  myself  having  last  night 
sewed  up  all  right  and  tight  for  you  the  bit  of 
your  scalp  that  had  fetched  away.  How  does  it 
feel?" 

"  It  hurts,"  was  all  that  I  could  answer. 

"  And  small  blame  to  it,"  said  the  doctor,  and 
went  on :  "  It's  a  well-made  thick  head  you  have, 
and  its  tough  you  are,  my  son,  not1  to  be  killed  en 
tirely  by  such  a  whack  as  you  got  on  your  brain- 
box — to  say  nothing  of  your  fancy  for  trying  to 
cure  it  hydropathically  by  taking  it  into  the  sea 
with  you  when  you  were  for  crossing  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  on  the  fag-end  of  a  mast.  It's  much  indeed 
that  you  have  to  learn,  I  am  thinking,  both  about 
surgery  and  about  taking  care  of  yourself.  But  in 
the  former  you'll  now  do  well,  being  in  the  com- 

53 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

petent  hands  of  a  graduate  of  Dublin  University ; 
and  in  regard  to  your  incompetence  in  the  latter 
good  reason  have  you  for  being  thankful  that  the 
Hurst  Castle  happened  to  be  travelling  in  these 
parts  last  night,  and  that  her  third  officer  is  blessed 
with  a  pair  of  extra  big  ears  and  so  happened  to 
hear  you  talking  to  him  from  out  of  the  depths 
of  the  sea. 

"  But  talking  isn't  now  the  best  thing  for  you, 
and  some  more  of  the  sleep  that  you're  so  fond  of 
is — if  only  the  tumbling  of  the  ship  will  let  you 
have  it ;  so  take  this  powder  into  that  mouth  of 
yours  which  you  opened  so  wide  when  you  were 
conversing  with  us  as  we  went  sailing  past  you, 
and  then  stop  your  present  chattering  and  take  all 
the  sleep  that  you  can  hold." 

With  that  he  put  a  bitter  powder  into  my  mouth, 
and  gave  me  a  drink  of  water  after  it — raising  me 
up  with  a  wonderful  deftness  and  gentleness  that  I 
might  take  it,  and  settling  me  back  again  on  the 
pillow  in  just  the  way  that  I  wanted  to  lie.  "And 
now  be  off  again  to  your  friends  the  Ephesians," 
he  said  ;  "  only  remember  that  if  you  or  they — or 
their  dog  either,  poor  beasty — wants  anything,  it's 
only  needed  to  touch  this  electric  bell.  As  to  the 
doggy,"  he  added,  with  his  hand  on  the  door-knob, 
"  tell  him  to  poke  at  the  button  with  the  tip  of  his 
foolish  nose."  And  with  that  he  opened  the  door 
and  went  away. 

54 


I  ENCOUNTER  A  DOCTOR  AND  A  GALE 

All  this  light  friendly  talk  was  such  a  comfort 
to  me— showing,  as  it  did,  along  with  the  good 
care  that  I  was  getting,  what  kindly  people  I  had 
fallen  among— that  in  my  weak  state  I  cried  a  lit 
tle  because  of  my  happy  thankfulness;  and  then, 
my  weakness  and  the  powder  acting  together  to 
lull  me,  in  spite  of  the  ship's  sharp  motion  I  went 
off  again  to  sleep. 

But  that  time  my  sleep  did  not  last  long.  In  less 
than  an  hour,  I  suppose,  the  motion  became  so 
violent  as  to  shake  me  awake  again— and  to  give 
me  all  that  I  could  do  to  keep  myself  from  being 
shot  out  of  my  berth  upon  the  floor.  Presently 
the  doctor  came  again,  fetching  with  him  one  of 
the  cabin  stewards  to  rig  the  storm-board  at  the 
side  of  my  berth  and  some  extra  pillows  with 
which  to  wedge  me  fast.  But  though  he  gave  me 
a  lot  more  of  his  pleasant  chaff  to  cheer  me  I  could 
see  that  his  look  was  anxious,  and  it  seemed  to  me 
that  the  steward  was  badly  scared.  Between  them 
they  managed  to  stow  me  pretty  tight  in  my  berth 
and  to  make  me  as  comfortable  as  was  possible 
while  everything  was  in  such  commotion — with  the 
ship  bouncing  about  like  a  pea  on  a  hot  shovel  and 
all  the  wood-work  grinding  and  creaking  with  the 
sudden  lifts  and  strains. 

"  It's  a  baddish  gale  that's  got  hold  of  the  old 
Hurst  Castle,  and  .that's  a  fact,"  the  doctor  said, 
when  they  had  finished  with  me,  in  answer  to  the 

55 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

questioning  look  that  he  saw  in  my  eyes.  "  But 
it's  nothing  to  worry  about,"  he  went  on ;  "  except 
that  it's  hard  on  you,  with  that  badly  broken  head 
of  yours,  to  be  tumbled  about  worse  than  Mother 
O'Donohue's  pig  when  they  took  it  to  Limerick 
fair  in  a  cart.  So  just  lie  easy  there  among  your 
pillows,  my  son  ;  and  pretend  that  it's  exercise  that 
you  are  taking  for  the  good  of  your  liver — which  is 
a  torpid  and  a  sluggish  organ  in  the  best  of  us,  and 
always  the  better  for  such  a  shaking  as  the  sea  is 
giving  us  now.  And  be  remembering  that  the 
Hurst  Castle  is  a  Clyde-built  boat,  with  every  plate 
and  rivet  in  her  as  good  as  a  Scotsman  knows  how 
to  make  it — and  in  such  matters  it's  the  Sandies 
who  know  more  than  any  other  men  alive.  In  my 
own  ken  she's  pulled  through  storms  fit  to  founder 
the  Giant's  Causeway  and  been  none  the  worse  for 
'em,  and  so  it's  herself  that's  certain  to  weather 
this  bit  of  a  gale — which  has  been  at  its  worst  no 
less  than  two  times  this  same  morning,  and  there 
fore  by  all  rule  and  reason  must  be  for  breaking  soon. 
"And  be  thinking,  too,"  he  added  as  he  Avas 
leaving  me,  "  that  I'll  be  coming  in  to  look  after 
you  now  and  then  when  I  have  a  spare  minute — 
for  there  are  some  others,  I'm  sorry  to  say,  who 
are  after  needing  me;  and  as  soon  as  the  gale 
goes  down  a  bit  I'll  overhaul  again  that  cracked 
head  of  yours,  and  likely  be  singing  you  at  the 
same  time  for  your  amusement  a  real  Irish  song." 

56 


I  ENCOUNTER  A  DOCTOR  AND  A  GALE 

But  not  much  was  there  of  singing,  nor  of  any 
other  show  of  lightheartedness,  aboard  the  Hurst 
Castle  during  the  next  twelve  hours.  So  far  from 
breaking,  Jhe  gale — as  the  doctor  had  called  it,  al 
though  in  reality  it  was  a  hurricane — got  worse 
steadily ;  with  only  a  lull  now  and  then,  as  though 
for  breath-taking,  and  then  a  fiercer  rush  of  wind 
—before  which  the  ship  would  reel  and  shiver, 
while  the  grinding  of  her  iron  frame  and  the 
crunching  of  her  wood-work  made  a  sort  of  wild 
chorus  of  groans  and  growls.  For  all  my  wedging 
of  pillows  I  was  near  to  flying  over  the  storm- 
board  out  of  my  berth  with  some  of  the  plunges 
that  she  took ;  and  very  likely  I  should  have  had 
such  a  tumble  had  not  the  doctor  returned  again 
in  a  little  while  and  with  the  mattress  from  the 
upper  berth  so  covered  me  as  to  jam  me  fast — and 
how  he  managed  to  do  this,  under  the  circum 
stances,  I  am  sure  I  don't  know. 

When  he  had  finished  my  packing  he  bent  down 
over  me  —  or  I  could  not  have  h,eard  him  —  and 
said :  "  It's  sorry  I  am  for  you,  my  poor  boy,  for 
you're  getting  just  now  more  than  your  full  share 
of  troubles.  But  we're  all  in  a  pickle  together,  and 
that's  a  fact,  and  the  choice  between  us  is  small. 
And  I'd  be  for  suggesting  that  if  you  know  such  a 
thing  as  a  prayer  or  two  you'll  never  have  a  finer 
opportunity  for  saying  them  than  you  have  now." 
And  by  that,  and  by  the  friendly  sorrowful  look 

57 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

that  he  gave  me,  I  knew  that  our  peril  must  be 
extreme. 

I  don't  like  to  think  of  the  next  few  hours :  while 
I  lay  there  packed  tight  as  any  mummy,  and 
with  no  better  than  a  mummy's  chances,  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  of  ever  seeing  the  live  world  again 
—terrified  by  the  awful  war  of  the  storm  and  by 
the  confusion  of  wild  noises,  and  every  now  and. 
then  sharply  startled  by  hearing  on  the  deck  above 
me  a  fierce,  crash  as  something  fetched  away.  It 
was  a  bad  time,  Heaven  knows,  for  everybody  ;  but 
for  me  I  thought  that  it  was  worst  of  all.  For 
there  I  was  lying  in  utter  helplessness,  with  the 
certainty  that  if  the  ship  foundered  there  was  not 
a  chance  for  me — since  I  must  drown  solitary  in  my 
state-room,  like  a  rat  drowned  in  a  hole. 


VIII 

THE    HURST  CASTLE  IS    DONE    FOR 

AT  last,  having  worn  itself  out,  as  sailors  say, 
the  storm  began  to  lessen :  first  showing  its  weak 
ening  by  losing  its  little  lulls  and  fiercer  gusts  after 
them,  and  then  dropping  from  a  tempest  to  a  mere 
gale — that  in  turn  fell  slowly  to  a  gentle  wind. 
But  even  after  the  wind  had  fallen,  and  for  a  good 
while  after,  the  ship  labored  in  a  tremendous  sea. 

As  I  grew  easier  in  my  mind  and  body,  and  so 
could  think  a  little,  I  wondered  why  my  friend  the 
doctor  did  not  come  to  me ;  and  when  at  last  my 
door  was  opened  I  looked  eagerly — my  eyes  being 
the  only  free  part  of  me — to  see  him  come  in.  But 
it  was  the  steward  who  entered,  and  I  had  a  little 
sharp  pang  of  disappointment  because  I  missed  the 
face  that  I  wanted  to  see.  However,  the  man 
stooped  over  me,  kindly  enough,  and  lifted  off  the 
mattress  and  did  his  best  to  make  me  comfortable ; 
only  when  I  asked  him  where  the  doctor  was  he 
pretty  dismally  shook  his  head. 

"  It's  th'  doctor  himself  is  needin'  doctorin',  poor 
soul,"  he  answered,  "he  bein'  with  his  right  leg 

59 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

broke,  and  with  his  blessed  head  broke  a-raost  as 
bad  as  yours !"  And  then  he  told  me  that  when 
the  storm  was  near  ended  the  doctor  had  gone  on 
deck  to  have  a  look  at  things,  and  almost  the  min 
ute  he  got  there  had  been  knocked  over  by  a  falling 
spar.  "  For  th'  old  ship's  shook  a-most  to  pieces," 
the  man  went  on;  "with  th'  foremast  clean  over 
board,  an'  th'  mizzen  so  wobbly  that  it's  dancin' 
a  jig  every  time  she  pitches,  and  everything  at 
rags  an'  tatters  an'  loose  ends." 

"But  the  doctor?"  I  asked. 

"  He  says  himself,  sir,  that  he's  not  dangerous, 
and  I  s'pose  he  ought  to  know.  Th'  captain  an' 
th'  purser  together,  he  orderin'  'em,  have  set  his 
leg  for  him ;  and  his  head,  he  says,  '11  take  care  of 
itself,  bein'  both  thick  an'  hard.  But  he's  worryin' 
painful  because  he  can't  look  after  you,  sir,  an'  th' 
four  or  five  others  that  got  hurt  in  th'  storm.  And 
I  can  tell  you,  sir,"  the  man  went  on,  "  that  all  th' 
ship's  company,  an'  th'  passengers  on  top  of  'em, 
are  sick  with  sorrow  that  this  has  happened  to 
him ;  for  there's  not  a  soul  ever  comes  near  th' 
doctor  but  loves  him  for  his  goodness,  and  we'd 
all  be  glad  to  break  our  own  legs  this  minute  if  by 
that  we  could  be  mendin'  his  !" 

The  steward  spoke  very  feelingly  and  earnestly, 
and  with  what  he  said  I  was  in  thorough  sympa 
thy  ;  for  the  doctor's  care  of  me  and  his  friendli 
ness  had  won  my  heart  to  him,  just  as  it  had  won 

60 


THE    HURST  CASTLE  IS    DONE   FOR 

to  him  the  hearts  of  all  on  board.  But  there  was 
comfort  in  knowing  that  he  had  got  off  with  only 
a  broken  leg  and  a  broken  head  from  a  peril  that 
so  easily  might  have  been  the  death  of  him,  and  of 
that  consolation  I  made  the  most — while  the  stew 
ard,  who  was  a  handy  fellow  and  pretty  well  trained 
as  a  surgeon's  assistant,  freshly  bandaged  my  head 
for  me  as  the  doctor  had  ordered  him  to  do,  and 
so  set  me  much  more  at  my  ease.  After  that,  for 
the  rest  of  the  day,  he  came  every  hour  or  so  to 
look  after  me ;  giving  me  some  broth  to  eat  and  a 
biscuit,  and  some  medicine  that  the  doctor  sent 
me  with  the  message  that  it  would  put  strength 
enough  into  a  dead  pig  to  set  him  to  dancing — by 
which  I  knew  that  even  if  his  head  and  leg  were 
broken  there  was  no  break  in  his  whimsical  fun. 

The  steward  was  the  only  man  who  came  near 
me ;  but  this  did  not  surprise  me  when  he  told  me 
more  about  the  condition  that  the  ship  was  in,  and 
how  all  hands — excepting  himself,  who  had  been 
detailed  because  of  his  knowledge  £hat  way  to  look 
after  the  hurt  people  under  the  doctors  direction- 
were  hard  at  work  making  repairs,  with  what  men 
there  were  among  the  passengers  helping  too.  The 
ship  was  not  leaking,  he  said,  and  this  was  the  luck 
ier  because  her  frame  was  so  strained  that  it  was 
doubtful  if  her  water-tight  compartments  would 
hold ;  but  the  foremast  had  been  carried  away,  and 
all  the  weather-boats  had  been  mashed  out  of  all 

61 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

shape  or  swept  overboard,  and  the  mizzen  was  so 
shaky  that  it  seemed  likely  at  any  moment  to  fall. 
Indeed,  the  mast  was  in  such  a  bad  way,  he  said, 
that  the  first  and  second  officers  were  for  getting 
rid  of  it — and  of  the  danger  that  there  was  of  its 
coming  down  all  in  a  heap  anyway — by  sending 
it  overboard ;  but  that  the  captain  thought  it  safe 
to  stand  now  that  the  sea  was  getting  smooth  again, 
and  was  setting  up  jury-stays  to  hold  it  until  we  made 
the  Azores — for  which  islands  our  course  was  laid. 
By  the  time  that  night  came  again  the  sea  had 
pretty  well  gone  down,  and  beyond  the  easy  roll 
that  was  on  her  the  ship  had  no  motion  save  the 
steady  vibration  of  her  screw.  With  this  comfort 
ing  change  the  pain  in  my  head  became  only  a  dull 
heavy  aching,  and  I  had  a  chance  to  feel  how  ut 
terly  weary  I  was  after  the  strain  of  mind  and 
body  that  had  been  put  on  me  by  the  gale.  A 
little  after  eight  o'clock,  as  I  knew  by  hearing  the 
ship's  bell  striking  — and  mighty  pleasant  it  was 
to  hear  regularly  that  orderly  sound  again  —  the 
steward  brought  me  a  bowl  of  broth  and  propped 
me  up  in  my  berth  while  I  drank  it ;  and  cheered 
me  by  telling  me  that  the  doctor  was  swearing  at 
his  broken  leg  like  a  good  fellow,  and  was  getting 
on  very  well  indeed.  And  then  my  weariness  had 
its  way  with  me,  and  I  fell  off  into  that  deep  sleep 
which  comes  to  a  man  only  when  all  his  energy 
has  slipped  away  from  him  on  a  dead  low  tide. 

62 


THE   HURST  CASTLE  IS   DONE   FOR 

How  long  I  slept  I  do  not  know.  But  I  do  know 
that  I  was  routed  suddenly  into  wakefulness  by  a 
jar  that  almost  pitched  me  out  of  my  berth,  and 
that  an  instant  later  there  was  a  tremendous  crash 
as  though  the  whole  deck  above  me  was  smash 
ing  to  pieces,  and  with  this  a  rattle  of  light  wood 
work  splintering  and  the  sharp  tinkling  of  breaking 
glass.  For  a  moment  there  was  silence ;  and  then 
I  heard  shouts  and  screams  close  by  me  in  the  cabin, 
and  a  little  later  a  great  trampling  on  deck,  and 
then  the  screw  stopped  turning  and  there  was  a 
roar  of  escaping  steam. 

I  was  so  heavy  with  sleep  that  at  first  I  thought 
we  still  were  in  the  storm  and  that  this  commotion 
was  a  part  of  it;  but  as  I  shook  off  my -drowsiness 
I  got  a  clearer  notion  of  the  situation — remember 
ing  what  the  steward  had  told  me  of  the  condition 
of  the  mizzen-mast,  and  so  arriving  at  the  conclu 
sion  that  it  had  fetched  away  bodily  and  had  come 
crashing  through  the  cabin  skylight  in  its  fall.  But 
what  the  shock  was  that  had  sent  it  flying — unless 
we  had  been  in  collision — I  could  not  understand. 
And  all  this  while  the  trampling  on  deck  continued, 
and  out  in  the  cabin  the  shouts  and  cries  went  on. 

I  thought  that  the  steward  would  come  to  me — 
forgetting  that  in  times  of  danger  men  are  apt  to 
think  only  of  saving  their  own  skins — and  so  laid 
still ;  being,  indeed,  so  weak  and  wretched  that  it 
did  not  seem  possible  to  me  to  do  anything  else. 

63 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

Bat  he  did  not  come,  and  at  the  end  of  what 
seemed  to  me  to  be  a  desperately  long  time — though 
I  doubt  if  it  were  more  than  live  minutes — I  re 
alized  that  I  must  try  to  do  something  to  help  my 
self ;  and  was  the  more  nerved  to  action  by  the 
fact  that  there  no  longer  was  the  sound  of  voices 
in  the  cabin,  while  the  noises  on  deck  a  good  deal 
had  increased.  Indeed,  I  began  to  hear  up  there 
the  puffing  and  snorting  of  the  donkey-engine,  and 
so  felt  certain  that  they  were  hoisting  out  the 
boats. 

Somehow  or  another  I  managed  to  get  out  of 
my  berth,  and  on  my  feet,  and  so  to  the  door ; 
but  when  I  tried  to  open  the  door  I  could  not  budge 
it,  and  in  the  darkness  I  struck  my  head  against 
what  seemed  to  be  a  bar  of  wood  that  stuck  in 
through  one  of  the  upper  panels  and  so  held  it  fast. 
The  blow  dizzied  me,  for  it  took  me  close  to  where 
my  cut  was  and  put  me  into  intense  pain. 

"While  I  stood  there,  pulling  in  a  weak  way  at 
the  door-knob  and  making  nothing  of  it,  I  heard 
voices  out  in  the  cabin  and  through  my  broken 
door  saw  a  gleam  of  light.  But  in  the  moment 
that  my  hope  rose  it  went  down  again,  for  I  heard 
some  one  say  quickly  and  sharply :  "  It's  no  good. 
The  way  the  spar  lies  we  can't  get  at  him — and  to 
cut  it  through  would  take  an  hour." 

And  then  a  voice  that  I  recognized  for  the 
steward's  answered :  "  But  the  doctor  ordered  it. 

G4 


THE   HURST   CASTLE  IS    DONE    FOR 

"Where's  an  axe  for  a  try  f"  To  which  the  other 
man  answered  back  again :  "  If  it  was  the  doctor 
himself  we  couldn't  do  it,  and  wre'll  tell  him  so. 
The  ship  '11  be  down  in  five  minutes.  We've  got 
to  run  for  it  or  the  boats  '11  be  off."  And  then 
away  they  ran  together,  giving  no  heed  in  their 
fright  to  my  yells  after  them  to  come  back  and  not 
leave  me  there  to  drown. 

For  a  little  while  I  was  as  nearly  wild  crazy  as 
a  man  can  be  and  yet  have  a  purpose  in  his  mind. 
The  keen  sense  of  my  peril  made  me  strong  again. 
I  kicked  with  my  bare  feet  and  pounded  with  my 
hands  upon  the  door  to  break  it,  I  shouted  for  help 
to  come  to  me,  and  I  gave  out  shrill  screams  of 
terror  such  as  brutes  give  in  their  agony--- for  I  was 
down  to  the  hard-pan  of  human  nature,  and  what 
I  felt  most  strongly  was  the  purely  animal  longing 
to  keep  alive. 

But  no  one  answered  me,  and  I  could  tell  by 
the  sounds  on  deck  getting  fainter  that  some  of  the 
boats  already  had  put  off ;  and  jn  a  little  while 
longer  no  sound  came  from  the  deck  of  any  sort 
whatever,  and  by  that  I  knew  that  all  the  boats 
must  have  got  awray.  And  as  I  realized  that  I  was 
forsaken,  and  felt  sure  from  what  I  had  heard  that 
the  ship  would  float  for  only  a  few  minutes  longer, 
I  gave  a  cry  of  downright  despair — and  then  I  lost 
track  of  the  whole  bad  business  by  tumbling  to  the 
floor  in  the  darkness  in  a  dead  swoon. 
E  65 


IX 

ON   THE    EDGE    OF    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

WHEN  I  came  to  myself  again,  and  found  my 
state-room— although  the  dead-light  was  set — bright 
with  the  light  which  entered  through  the  broken 
door,  my  first  feeling  was  of  wonder  that  I  was 
not  yet  drowned ;  for  it  was  evident  that  the  sun 
must  be  well  up  in  the  heavens  to  shine  so  strongly, 
and  therefore  that  a  good  many  hours  must  have 
passed  since  the  smash  had  happened  that  had  sent 
everybody  flying  to  the  boats  believing  that  the 
ship  was  going  right  down.  And  my  next  wonder 
was  caused  by  the  queer  way  in  which  the  ship 
was  lying — making  me  fancy  at  first  that  I  was 
dizzy  again,  and  my  eyes  tricking  me — with  a 
pitch  forward  that  gave  a  slope .  to  the  floor  of  my 
state-room  of  not  less  than  twenty  degrees. 

For  a  while,  in  a  stupid  sort  of  way,  I  ruminated 
over  these  matters ;  and  at  last  got  hold  of  the 
simple  explanation  of  them.  Evidently,  in  spite  of 
the  straining  of  the  steamer's  frame  in  the  storm, 
her  water-tight  compartments — or  some  of  them — 
had  held,  leaving  her  floating  with  her  broken  bow 

66 


ON    THE   EDGE   OF   SARGASSO   SEA 

well  down  in  the  water  and  her  stern  canted  up 
into  the  air.  And  then  the  farther  comforting 
thought  came  to  me  that  if  she  had  kept  afloat  for 
so  many  hours  already,  and  seemed  so  steady  in 
her  new  position,  there  was  no  reason  why  she 
should  not  keep  on  floating  at  least  for  as  long  as 
the  fine  weather  lasted — which  gave  me  a  chance 
of  rescue  by  some  passing  vessel,  and  so  brought  a 
good  deal  of  hope  back  into  my  heart. 

I  still  was  very  weak  and  shaky,  and  how  I  was 
to  get  out  of  the  prison  that  I  was  in  I  did  not 
know.  By  daylight  it  was  easy  to  see  Avhat  held 
me  there :  which  was  the  end  of  a  yard,  with  the 
reef-block  hanging  to  it,  smashed  through  the  up 
per  panel  and  caught  so  tight  in  the  ^splintered 
wood-work  as  to  anchor  the  door  fast.  If  the  wits 
of  the  steward  and  of  the  other  fellow  had  not 
been  scared  clean  out  of  them  they  easily  might 
have,  knocked  in  the  lower  part  of  the  door  with  an 
axe  and  so  opened  a  way  out  for  me ;  but  as  their 
only  notion  had  been  to  cut  away  the  spar — a 
tough  piece  of  work — I  could  not  in  cool  blood 
very  greatly  blame  them  for  having  given  up  my 
rescue  and  run  for  their  own  lives. 

These  thoughts  went  through  my  head  while  I 
lay  there,  most  uncomfortably,  on  the  sloping  floor. 
Presently  I  managed  to  get  up,  but  felt  so  dizzy 
that  I  had  to  seat  myself  in  a  hurry  on  the  edge 
of  the  berth  until  my  head  got  steadier.  Fortu- 

67 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

nately  my  water -jug  was  half  full,  and  I  had  a 
good  drink  from  it  which  refreshed  me  greatly;  and 
then  I  had  the  farther  good  fortune  to  see  some 
biscuit  which  the  steward  had  left  on  a  shelf  in  the 
corner,  and  as  I  caught  sight  of  them  I  realized  that 
I  was  very  hungry  indeed,  I  ate  one,  along  with 
some  more  sups  of  water,  and  felt  much  the  better 
for  it ;  but  lay  down  in  my  berth  that  I  might  save 
the  strength  it  gave  me  until  I  should  have  thought 
matters  over  a  little  and  settled  some  line  of  action 
in  my  mind. 

That  I  was  too  weak  to  break  the  door  down 
was  quite  certain,  and  the  only  other  thing  that  I 
could  think  of  was  cutting  out  the  lower  panels 
and  so  making  a  hole  through  which  I  could  crawl. 
As  this  thought  came  to  me  I  remembered  the  big 
jack-knife  that  had  been  in  my  trousers'  pocket 
when  I  went  overboard  from  the  brig;  and  in  a 
minute  I  was  on  my  feet — and  without  feeling  any 
dizziness,  this  time — and  got  to  where  my  clothes 
were  hanging  on  a  hook,  and  found  to  my  joy  that 
my  knife  and  all  the  other  things  which  had  been 
in  my  pockets  had  been  returned  to  them  after  the 
clothes  had  been  dried.  The  knife  was  badly 
rusted  and  I  had  a  hard  time  opening  it ;  but  the 
rust  did  not  much  dull  it,  and  I  seated  myself  upon 
the  floor  and  fell  to  slicing  away  at  the  soft  pine 
wood  Avith  a  will.  I  had  to  rest  now  and  then, 
although  I  found  that  my  strength  held  out  better 

68 


ON   THE   EDGE    OF   SARGASSO    SEA 

than  I  had  hoped  for,  and  that  put  me  back  a  little ; 
but  the  wood  was  so  soft  that  in  not  much  more 
than  half  an  hour  I  had  the  job  finished — and  then  I 
slipped  on  my  trousers,  and  out  I  went  through  the 
hole  on  my  hands  and  knees. 

I  found  the  cabin  in  utter  wreck :  littered  every 
where  with  broken  glass  and  broken  wood  from 
the  skylight,  and  from  the  smashed  hanging-racks 
and  the  smashed  dining-table,  and  with  splinters 
from  the  mast — which  had  broken  in  falling,  and 
along  the  whole  length  of  the  place  had  made  a 
tangle  of  its  own  fragments  and  of  the  ropes  and 
blocks  which  had  held  its  sails.  Of  the  sails  them 
selves  there  were  left  only  some  fuzzy  traces  cling 
ing  to  the  bolt-ropes,  all  the  rest  having  been  blown 
loose  and  frayed  away  by  the  storm.  Oddly  enough, 
some  of  the  drinking-glasses  still  remained  unbroken 
in  one  of  the  racks,  and  with  them  a  bottle  partly 
filled  with  wine — to  the  neck  of  which  a  card  was 
fastened  bearing  the  name,  Jose  Rubio  y  Salinas, 
of  the  passenger  to  whom  it  had  belonged.  I  took 
the  liberty  of  drinking  a  glass  of  Don  Jose's  wine — 
feeling  sure  that  he  was  not  coming  back  to  claim 
it — and  felt  so  much  better  after  it  that  I  thanked 
him  cordially  for  leaving  it  there. 

Most  of  the  state-room  doors  stood  open,  show 
ing  within  clothing  tossed  about  and  trunks  with 
their  lids  turned  back,  and  the  general  confusion  in 
which  the  passengers  had  left  things  when  they 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

scrambled  together  their  most  precious  belongings 
and  rushed  for  the  boats — with  death,  as  they  fan 
cied,  treading  close  upon  their  heels.  But  with 
what  remained  in  the  state-rooms  I  did  not  concern 
myself,  being  desirous  first  of  all  to  get  on  deck 
and  have  a  look  about  me  that  I  might  size  up  my 
chances  of  keeping  alive.  That  there  was  no  com 
panion-way  up  from  the  cabin  puzzled  me  a  little, 
for  I  knew  nothing  of  the  internal  arrangements  of 
steamships ;  but  presently  I  found  a  passage  leading 
forward,  and  by  that  I  came  to  the  stair  to  the 
deck  of  which  I  was  in  search. 

Up  it  I  went,  but  when  I  fairly  got  outside  and 
saw  the  desperate  state  of  the  craft  that  I  was 
afloat  on  my  heart  sank.  Indeed,  it  seemed  a  fly 
ing  in  the  face  of  all  reason  that  such  an  utter 
wreck  should  float  at  all.  Of  the  foremast  nothing 
but  the  splintered  stump  remained.  The  starboard 
rail,  which  had  been  to  AVI nd ward  of  it,  was  gashed 
by  chance  axe-blows  made  in  cutting  away  the 
shrouds ;  and  as  to  the  port  rail,  twenty  feet  of  it 
was  gone  entirely  where  the  mast  had  come  crash 
ing  down,  Avhile  the  side-plates  below  were  bulged 
out  Avith  the  strain  put  upon  them  before  the  stand 
ing-rigging  fastened  there  had  fetched  away.  The 
mizzen-mast  lay  aft  across  the  cabin  skylight,  Avith 
its  standing  and  running  rigging  making  a  tangle 
on  each  side  of  it.  The  main-mast  still  stood,  but 
Avith  its  top-mast  broken  off  and  dangling  nearly  to 

70 


ON   THE   EDGE   OF   SARGASSO   SEA 

the  deck.  Two  of  the  weather-boats  remained  fast 
to  the  davits,  but  so  smashed  that  they  looked  like 
battered  tin  wash-basins,  and  would  have  floated 
just  about  as  well.  All  the  other  boats  were  gone  : 
those  on  the  weather  side,  as  the  splintered  ways 
and  broken  ropes  showed,  having  been  washed 
overboard ;  and  those  to  leeward  having  been 
hoisted  out  by  the  tackles,  which  still  hung  from 
the  davits  and  dipped  lazily  with  the  ship's  easy 
motion  into  the  sea. 

All  this  was  bad  enough,  but  what  most  took  the 
spirit  out  of  me  was  the  way  that  the  ship  was  ly 
ing — her  stern  high  up  in  the  air,,  and  her  bow  so 
deep  in  the  water  that  the  sea  came  up  almost  to 
her  main-mast  along  her  sloping  deck. ,  It  seemed 
inevitable  that  in  another  moment  she  would  follow 
her  nose  in  the  start  downward  that  it  had  made 
and  go  straight  to  the  bottom  ;  and  each  little  wave, 
as  it  lapped  its  way  aft  softly,  made  me  fancy  that 
the  plunge  had  begun. 

As  to  the  outlook  around  me,  the  only  comfort 
that  I  got  from  it  was  the  fairness  of  the  weather 
and  the  smoothness  of  the  sea.  For  close  upon  the 
water  a  soft  haze  was  hanging  that  even  to  the 
north,  out  of  which  blew  a  gentle  wind,  brought 
the  horizon  within  a  mile  of  me ;  and  down  to  lee 
ward  the  haze  was  banked  so  thick  that  I  could 
make  out  nothing  beyond  half  a  mile.  And  so, 
even  though  a  whole  fleet  might  be  passing  near 

71 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

me,  my  chances  of  rescue  were  very  small.  But 
from  the  look  of  the  ocean  I  knew  that  no  fleets 
were  likely  to  be  thereabouts,  and  that  even  though 
the  haze  lifted  I  might  search  long  and  vainly  for 
sight  of  .so  much  as  a  single  sail.  As  far  as  I  could 
see  around  me  the  water  was  covered  thickly  with 
gulf-weed,  and  with  this  was  all  sorts  of  desolate 
flotsam — planks,  and  parts  of  masts,  and  fragments 
of  ships'  timbers  —  lolling  languidly  on  the  soft 
swell  that  was  running,  yet  each  scrap  having  be 
hind  it  its  own  personal  tragedy  of  death  and  storm. 
And  this  mess  of  wreckage  was  so  much  thicker 
than  I  had  seen  when  the  brig  was  on  the  coast- 
as  Bowers  had  called  it — of  the  Sargasso  Sea  as  to 
convince  me  that  already  I  must  be  within  the 
borders  of  that  ocean  mystery  which  a  little  while 
before  I  had  been  so  keen  for  exploring ;  and  my 
fate  seemed  sealed  to  me  as  I  realized  that  I  there 
fore  was  in  a  region  which  every  living  ship  steered 
clear  of,  and  into  which  never  any  but  dead  ships 
came. 


I    TAKE    A    CHEERFUL   VIEW    OF    A    BAD    SITUATION 

WHEN  I  perceived  the  tight  fix  that  I  was  in 
my  broken  head  went  to  throbbing  again,  and  my 
legs  were  so  shaky  under  me  that  I  had  to  sit 
down  on  the  deck  in  a  hurry  in  order  to  save  my 
self  from  a  fall.  Indeed,  I  was  in  no  condition  to 
face  even  an  ordinary  trouble,  let  alone  an  over 
whelming  disaster ;  for  what  with  my  loss  of  blood 
from  the  cut  on  my  head,  and  the  little  food  I  had 
eaten  since  I  got  it,  I  wras  as  weak  as  a  cat. 

Luckily  I  had  the  sense  to  realize  that  I  needed 
the  strength  which  food  would  give  me  in  order 
to  save  myself  from  dropping  off  into  sheer  de 
spair.  And  with  the  thought  of  gating  there  sud 
denly  woke  up  in  my  inside  a  hungry  feeling  that 
surprised  me  by  its  sharpness ;  and  instantly  put 
such  vigor  into  my  shaky  legs  that  I  was  up  on 
them  in  a  moment,  and  off  to  the  companion-way 
to  begin  my  explorations  below.  And  when,  be 
ing  come  to  the  cabin  again,  I  had  another  sup  of 
Don  Jose's  wine  I  got  quite  ravenous,  and  felt 
strong  enough  to  kick  a  door  in  —  if  that  should 

73 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

be  necessary — in  order  to  satisfy  my  craving  for 
food. 

There  was  no  need  for  staving  in  doors,  for  none 
of  them  was  fastened ;  but  it  was  some  little  time 
—because  of  my  ignorance  of  the  arrangement  of 
steamships — before  I  could  find  one  that  had  things 
to  eat  on  the  other  side  of  it.  Around  the  cabin, 
and  along  the  passage  leading  forward,  were  only 
state-rooms;  but  just  beyond  the  companion-way 
I  came  at  last  to  the  pantry — and  beyond  this 
again,  as  I  found  later,  were  the  store-rooms  and 
the  galley.  For  the  moment,  however,  the  pantry 
gave  me  all  that  I  wanted.  In  a  covered  box  I 
found  some  loaves  of  bread,  and  in  a  big  refriger 
ator  a  lot  of  cold  victuals  that  set  my  eyes  to  danc 
ing — two  or  three  roast  fowls,  part  of  a  big  joint 
of  beef,  a  boiled  tongue,  and  so  on  ;  and,  what  was 
almost  as  welcome,  in  another  division  of  the  re 
frigerator  a  dozen  or  more  bottles  of  beer.  On  the 
racks  above  were  dishes  and  glasses,  in  a  locker 
were  knives  and  forks,  and  I  even  found  hanging 
on  a  hook  a  corkscrew — and  the  quickness  with 
which  I  brought  these  various  things  together  and 
made  them  serve  my  purposes  was  a  sight  to  see ! 

When  I  had  eaten  nearly  a  whole  fowl,  and  had 
drunk  a  bottle  of  beer  with  it,  I  felt  like  another 
man;  and  then,  pursuing  my  investigations  more 
leisurely,  I  found  in  one  of  the  lockers — which  I 
took  the  liberty  of  prying  open  with  a  big  carving- 

74 


CHEERFUL  VIEW  OF  A  BAD  SITUATION 

knife — four  or  five  boxes  of  capital  cigars.  In  the 
same  locker  was  a  package  of  safety-matches,  and 
in  a  moment  I  was  puffing  away  with  such  satis 
faction  that  I  fairly  grew  light-hearted — so  great 
is  the  comfort  that  comes  to  a  man  with  good 
smoking  on  top  of  a  hearty  meal.  All  sorts  of 
bright  fancies  came  to  me :  of  making  one  of  the 
battered  boats  serviceable  again  and  getting  off  in 
it,  of  a  ship  blown  out  of  her  course  coming  to  my 
rescue,  of  a  strong  southerly  wind  that  would  car 
ry  the  hulk  of  the  poor  old  Hurst  Castle  back 
again  into  the  inhabited  parts  of  the  sea.  And 
with  these  thoughts  cheering  me  I  set  myself  to 
work  to  find  out  just  what  I  had  in  the  way  of 
provisions  aboard  ni}^  shattered  craft.  , 

I  did  not  have  to  search  far  nor  long  to  satisfy 
myself  that  I  had  a  bigger  stock  of  food  by  me 
than  I  could  eat  in  a  dozen  years.  Forward  of 
the  galley  were  the  store-rooms :  a  cold-room,  with 
a  plenty  of  ice  still  in  it,  in  which  was  hanging  a 
great  quantity  of  fresh  meat ;  a  wine-room,  very 
well  stocked  and  containing  also  some  cases  of  to 
bacco  and  cigars ;  and  in  the  other  rooms  was  stuff 
enough  to  fit  up  a  big  grocery  shop  on  shore- 
hams  and  bacon  and  potted  meats,  and  a  great 
variety  of  vegetables  in  tins,  and  all  sorts  of  sweets 
and  sauces  and  table-delicacies  in  tins  and  in  glass. 
Indeed,  although  I  was  full  to  the  chin  with  the 
meal  that  I  had  just  eaten,  my  mouth  fairly  watered 

75 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

at  sight  of  all  these  good  things.  In  the  bakery 
I  found  only  a  loaf  or  two  of  bread,  and  this — as 
it  was  lying  on  the  floor — I  suppose  must  have 
been  dropped  in  the  scramble  while  the  boats  were 
being  provisioned ;  but  in  the  baker's  store-room 
were  a  good  many  cases  of  fine  biscuit,  and  more 
than  twenty  barrels  of  flour.  In  addition  to  all 
this,  I  did  not  doubt  that  somewhere  on  board  Avas 
an  equally  large  store  of  provisions  for  the  use  of 
the  crew ;  but  with  that  I  did  not  bother  myself, 
being  satisfied  to  fare  as  a  cabin-passenger  on  the 
good  things  which  I  had  found.  Finally,  two  of 
the  big  water-tanks  still  were  full — the  others,  as 
I  inferred  from  the  cocks  being  open,  having  been 
emptied  for  the  supply  of  the  boats ;  and  as  a  re 
serve — leaving  rain  out  of  the  question — I  had  the 
ice  to  fall  back  upon,  of  which  there  was  so  great 
a  quantity  that  it  alone  would  last  me  for  a  long 
while.  In  a  word,  so  far  as  eating  and  drinking 
were  concerned,  I  was  as  well  off  as  a  man  could 
be  anywhere — having  by  me  not  only  all  the  nec 
essaries  of  life  but  most  of  its  luxuries  as  well. 

Finding  all  these  good  things  cheered  me  and 
put  heart  in  me  in  much  the  same  way  that  I  was 
cheered  and  heartened  by  finding  my  floating  mast 
after  Captain  Luke  and  the  mate  chucked  me  over 
board.  Again  I  had  the  certainty  that  death  for  a 
while  could  not  get  a  chance  at  me ;  and  this  sec 
ond  reprieve  was  of  a  more  promising  sort  than 

76 


CHEERFUL  VIEW  OF  A  BAD  SITUATION 

that  which  my  mast  had  given  me  in  the  open  sea. 
On  board  the  steamer,  or  what  was  left  of  her,  I 
was  sure  of  being  in  positive  comfort  so  long  as  she 
floated ;  and  my  good  spirits  made  me  so  sanguine 
that  I  was  confident  she  would  keep  on  floating 
until  I  struck  out  some  plan  by  which  I  could  get 
safe  away  from  her,  or  until  rescue  came  to  me  by 
some  lucky  turn  of  chance.  And  so,  having  com 
pleted  my  tour  of  inspection,  and  my  general  in 
ventory  of  the  property  to  which  by  right  of  sur 
vival  I  had  fallen  heir,  I  went  on  deck  again  in 
a  very  hopeful  mood. 

Even  the  utter  wreck  and  confusion  into  which  the 
steamer  had  fallen,  when  I  got  to  the  deck  and  saw 
it  again,  did  not  crush  the  hope  out  of  me  as  it  did 
when  I  came  upon  it — being  then  weak  and  fam 
ished — for  the  first  time.  I  even  found  a  cause  for 
greater  hopefulness  in  observing  that  the  water- 
line  still  stood,  as  it  had  stood  an  hour  and  more 
earlier,  a  little  forward  of  the  main-mast ;  for  that 
showed  that  the  water-tight  compartments  were 
holding,  and  that  the  hulk  was  in  no  immediate 
danger  of  going  clown.  It  did  seem,  to  be  sure, 
that  the  haze  had  grown  a  little  thicker,  arid  that 
the  weed  and  wreckage  around  the  steamer  were 
thicker  too ;  and  I  was  convinced  that  my  hulk 
was  moving  —  or  that  the  flotsam  about  it  was 
moving — by  seeing  a  broken  boat  floating  bottom 
upward  that  I  was  sure  wras  not  in  sight  when  I 

77 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

went  below.  But  I  argued  with  myself  cheerfully 
that  the  thickening  of  the  haze  might  be  due  to  a 
wind  coming  down  on  me  that  would  blow  it  clean 
away;  and  that  a  small  thing  like  an  empty  boat 
drifting  down  from  windward  proved  that  the 
Hurst  Castle  herself  was  moving  southward  very 
slowly,  or  perhaps  was  not  moving  at  all.  And  so, 
still  in  good  spirits,!  set  myself  to  looking  carefully 
for  something  that  would  float  me,  in  case  I  de 
cided  to  abandon  the  hulk  and  make  a  dash  for  it 
—on  the  chance  of  falling  in  with  a  passing  vessel 
— out  over  the  open  sea. 

Cut  when  I  had  made  the  round  of  the  deck — at 
least  of  the  part  of  it  that  was  out  of  water — I  had 
to  admit  that  getting  away  from  the  steamer  was 
a  sheer  impossibility,  unless  I  might  manage  it  by 
cobbling  together  some  sort  of  a  raft.  It  had  been 
all  very  well  for  me  to  fancy,  while  I  was  being 
cheered  with  chicken  and  beer  and  tobacco  down 
in  the  pantry,  that  I  could  make  one  of  the  bat 
tered  boats  sea-worthy ;  but  my  round  of  the  deck 
showed  me  that  with  all  my  training  in  mechanics 
I  never  could  make  one  of  them  float  again— for 
the  sea  had  wrenched  and  hammered  them  until 
they  were  no  better  than  so  much  old  iron.  The 
raft,  certainly,  was  a  possibility.  Spars  that  would 
serve  for  its  body  were  lying  around  in  plenty,  and 
with  the  doors  from  the  rooms  below  I  could  deck 
it  over  so  as  to  make  it  both  solid  and  dry ;  and 

78 


CHEERFUL  VIEW  OF  A  BAD  SITUATION 

somewhere  aboard  the  ship,  no  doubt,  were  car 
penter's  tools  —  though,  most  likely,  they  were 
down  under  water  forward  and  could  be  come  at 
only  by  diving  for  them.  Still,  the  raft  was  a  pos 
sibility  ;  and  so  was  comforting  to  think  about  as 
giving  me  another  reprieve  from  drowning  in  case 
the  water-tight  compartments  broke  down — and 
as  that  break  might  come  at  any  moment,  and  as 
the  job  would  take  me  two  days  at  the  shortest,  I 
realized  that  I  could  not  set  about  it  too  soon. 


XI 

MY    GOOD    SPIRITS    ARE    WRUNG    OUT    OF    ME 

BUT  the  other  chance  which  I  had  thought  of, 
that  my  hulk  might  be  blown  clear  of  the  Sar 
gasso  Sea  and  back  into  the  track  of  trade  again, 
still  was  to  be  reckoned  with ;  and  to  know  how 
that  chance  was  working  it  was  necessary  that  I 
should  find  out  my  exact  position  on  the  ocean, 
and  then  check  off  the  changes  in  it  by  fresh  ob 
servations  taken  from  day  to  day.  And  as  I  saw 
that  the  sun  was  close  upon  the  meridian,  and  no 
time  to  waste  if  I  wanted  to  secure  my  iirst  noon- 
sight,  I  put  off  beginning  my  carpentering  until  I 
should  have  hunted  for  the  ship's  instruments  and 
got  the  latitude  and  longitude  that  would  give  me 
my  departure  on  my  drifting  voyage. 

This  was  so  simple  a  piece  of  work  that  I  an 
ticipated  no  difficulty  in  executing  it.  While  the 
low- lying  haze  narrowed  my  horizon  it  did  not 
sufficiently  obscure  the  sun  to  interfere  with  sight- 
taking  ;  I  could  count  upon  finding  the  chronom 
eters  still  going,  they  being  made  to  run  for  fifty- 
six  hours  and  the  ship  having  been  abandoned  only 

80 


MY    GOOD    SPIRITS   ARE   WRUNG    OUT 

the  ni^ht  before ;  and  where  I  found  the  chronom- 

O 

eters  I  felt  sure  that  I  should  find  also  a  sextant 
and  a  chart.  But  when  I  went  at  this  easy-look 
ing  task  I  was  brought  up  with  a  round  turn  : 
there  were  no  chronometers,  there  was  no  sextant, 
there  was  no  chart  of  the  North  Atlantic — there 
was  not  even  a  compass  left  on  board  ! 

It  took  me  some  little  time  to  arrive  at  a  cer 
tainty  in  this  series  of  negatives.  I  fancied— be 
cause  it  had  been  that  way  aboard  the  Golden 
Hind — that  the  captain's  room  would  be  one  of 
those  opening  off  from  the  cabin,  and  so  began 
my  search  for  it  in  that  quarter.  But  when  I  had 
made  the  round  of  all  the  state-rooms  I  was  satis 
fied  that  they  had  been  occupied  only  by  passen 
gers.  The  single  timepiece  that  I  found — for  the 
clock  in  the  cabin  had  been  smashed  when  the 
mizzen-mast  came  down — was  a  fine  gold  watch 
lying  in  one  of  the  berths  partly  under  the  pillow, 
where  its  owner  must  have  left  it  in  his  hurry  to 
get  to  the  boats.  It  still  was  going,  and  I  slipped 
it  into  my  pocket — feeling  that  a  thing  with  even 
that  much  of  life  in  it  would  be  a  comfort  to  me ; 
but  the  hour  that  it  gave  was  a  quarter  past  eleven 
(it  having  been  set  to  the  ship's  time  the  day  be 
fore,  I  suppose)  and  therefore  was  of  no  use  to  me 
as  a  basis  for  sight-taking. 

Having  exhausted  the  possibilities  of  the  cabin  I 
concluded  that  the  captain's  quarters  must  have 

F  81 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

been  forward,  and  so  shifted  my  search  to  the  for 
ward  deck-house  ;  and  as  I  found  a  blue  uniform 
coat  and  a  suit  of  oil-skins  in  the  first  room  that  I 
entered  I  was  sure  that  in  a  general  way  I  was  on 
the  right  track.  But  in  none  of  these  rooms  did  I 
find  what  I  was  looking  for — though  I  did  find  in 
one  of  them,  and  greatly  to  my  satisfaction,  a  chest 
of  carpenter's  tools  and  a  big  box  of  nails.  The 
nails  must  have  been  there  by  pure  accident,  but 
the  tools  probably  were  the  carpenter's  private 
kit;  and  as  in  the  course  of  my  farther  search  I 
did  not  come  across  the  ship's  carpenter  -  shop— 
which  no  doubt  was  under  water  forward — I  felt 
that  this  chance  supply  of  what  I  needed  for  my 
raft-building  was  a  very  lucky  thing  for  me  in 
deed. 

The  upper  story  of  the  deck-house  still  remained 
to  be  investigated  ;  and  when,  by  the  steps  leading 
to  the  steamer's  bridge,  I  got  up  there  and  entered 
a  little  room  behind  the  wheel-house,  I  was  pretty 
sure  that  at  last  I  had  found  the  place  where  what 
I  wanted  ought  to  be.  The  part  forward  of  the 
doors  on  each  side  of  this  room — a  good  third  of  it 
—was  filled  by  a  chart-locker  having  a  dozen  or 
more  wide  shallow  drawers ;  and  the  flat  top  of  the 
locker  showed  at  its  four  corners  the  prickings  of 
thumb-tacks  which  had  held  the  charts  open  there, 
and  four  tacks  still  were  in  place  with  scraps  of 
thick  white  paper  under  them — as  though  some  one 

82 


MY    GOOD    SPIRITS  ARE   WRUNG    OUT 

in  too  great  a  hurry  to  loosen  it   properly   had 
ripped  the  chart  away. 

This  would  be,  of  course,  the  chart  actually  in 
use  when  the  steamer  got  into  trouble,  and  there 
fore  the  one  that  I  needed.  As  it  was  gone,  I 
opened  the  drawers  of  the  locker  and  looked 
through  them  in  search  of  a  duplicate ;  or  of  any 
thing — even  a  wind-chart  or  a  current-chart  would 
have  answered — that  would  serve  my  turn.  But 
while  there  were  charts  in  plenty  of  West  Indian 
and  of  English  waters,  and  a  set  covering  the  Ger 
man  Ocean,  not  a  chart  of  any  sort  relating  to  the 
North  Atlantic  did  I  find.  Neither  were  there  chro 
nometers  nor  any  nautical  instruments  in  the  room. 
In  one  corner  was  a  strongly  made  closet  in  which 
they  may  have  been  kept ;  but  of  this  the  door  stood 
open  and  the  shelves  were  bare.  Even  a  barom 
eter  which  had  hung  near  the  closet  had  been 
wrenched  away,  as  I  could  tell  by  the  broken  brass 
gimbals  still  fast  to  the  brass  supports;  but  this 
was  a  matter  of  no  importance,  since  I  had  noticed 
another  in  good  order  in  the  cabin — to  say  nothing 
of  the  fact  that  my  powerlessness  to  make  any 
provision  against  bad  weather  made  me  indifferent 
to  warnings  of  coming  storms.  And  then,  when  I 
continued  my  search  in  the  wheel-house,  though 
not  very  hopefully,  all  that  I  discovered  there  was 
that  the  binnacle  was  empty  and  that  the  compass 
was  gone  too.  In  a  word,  there  was  absolutely 

83 


IN   THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

nothing  on  board  the  hulk  that  would  enable  me 
to  fix  my  position  on  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  or 
that  would  guide  me  should  I  try  the  pretty  hope 
less  experiment  of  going  cruising  on  a  raft. 

This  fact  being  settled —and  hindsight  being 
clearer  than  foresight — I  had  no  difficulty  in  ac 
counting  for  it.  In  order  to  lay  a  course  and  to 
keep  it,  the  people  in  the  boats  would  need  pre 
cisely  the  things  which  had  been  carried  off ;  and 
as  each  boat  no  doubt  had  been  furnished  so  that 
in  case  of  separation  it  could  make  its  way  alone,  a 
clean  sweep  had  been  made  of  all  the  North  At 
lantic  charts  and  of  all  the  nautical  instruments 
that  the  steamer  had  on  board.  It  was  to  the 
credit  of  the  captain  that  he  had  kept  his  wits  so 
well  about  him— seeing  to  it,  in  the  sudden  skurry 
for  the  boats,  that  the  ultimate  as  well  as  the  im 
mediate  safety  of  his  people  was  provided  for — but 
when  I  found  out,  and  fairly  realized,  what  his 
coolness  had  cost  me  I  fell  off  once  more  from 
good  spirits  into  gloom. 

Being  left  that  way  all  at  loose  ends  as  to  my 
reckoning,  with  no  means  of  finding  out  where  I 
was  nor  whether  my  position  changed  for  the  bet 
ter  from  day  to  day,  the  hopes  that  I  had  been 
building  of  drifting  northward  and  so  falling  in 
with  a  passing  vessel  fell  down  in  a  bunch  and 
left  me  miserable.  I  see  now,  though  I  did  not 
see  it  then,  that  they  went  quite  as  unreasonably 

84 


MY   GOOD    SPIRITS    ARE   WRUNG    OUT 

as  they  came.  In  that  region  of  calms — for  I  was 
fairly  within  the  horse-latitudes — the  only  bit  of 
wind  that  I  was  likely  to  encounter  was  an  eddy 
from  the  northeast  trades  that  would  set  me  still 
farther  to  the  southward ;  and  the  only  other  mov 
ing  impulse  acting  upon  my  hulk — at  least  while 
fair  weather  lasted — would  be  the  slow  eddy  set 
ting  in  from  the  Gulf  Stream  and  moving  me  in 
the  same  direction.  In  the  case  of  a  storm  coming 
up  from  the  south,  and  so  giving  me  the  push 
northward  that  I  was  so  eager  for,  the  chances 
were  a  thousand  to  one  that  my  hulk  would  go  to 
the  bottom  long  before  I  could  get  to  a  part  of  the 
ocean  where  ships  were  likely  to  be.  And  as  to 
navigating  a  raft  through  that  tangle  of  weed,  al 
ready  thick  enough  around  me  to  check  the  way  of 
a  sharply  built  boat,  the  notion  was  so  absurd  that 
only  a  man  in  my  desperate  fix  would  even  have 
thought  about  it. 

But  had  there  been  a  Job's  comforter  at  hand  to 
put  these  black  thoughts  into  my  tiead  they  would 
not  have  helped  me  nor  harmed  me  much.  My 
whole  heart  had  been  set  on  getting  my  sights, 
and  filled  with  the  inconsequent  hope  that  in 
getting  them  I  somehow  would  be  bettering  my 
chances  of  coming  out  safe  at  last ;  and  so  it 
seemed  to  me  when  I  could  not  get  them — and 
in  this,  though  the  sight -taking  had  nothing 
to  do  with  it,  there  was  reason  in  plenty — that 

85 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

all  likelihood   of  my  being  rescued   had   slipped 
away. 

I  had  come  out  from  the  wheel-house  and  was 
standing  on  the  steamer's  bridge — which  rose  right 
out  of  the  water  so  that  I  looked  down  from  it  di 
rectly  on  the  weed-laden  sea.  As  far  as  my  sight 
would  carry  through  the  soft  golden  haze  I  saw 
only  weed-covered  water,  broken  here  and  there 
by  a  bit  of  wreckage  or  by  a  little  open  space  on 
which  the  pale  sunshine  gleamed.  A  very  gentle 
swell  was  running,  giving  to  the  ocean  the  look  of 
some  strange  sort  of  meadow  with  tall  grass  sway 
ing  evenly  in  an  easy  wind.  The  broken  boat  had 
moved  a  good  deal  and  already  was  well  to  the 
south  of  me ;  showing  me  that  there  was  motion 
in  that  apparent  stillness,  and  compelling  me  to 
believe  that  my  hulk — though  less  rapidly  than  the 
boat — was  moving  southward  too.  And  what  that 
meant  for  me  I  knew.  The  fair  weather  might 
continue  almost  indefinitely.  Days  and  weeks, 
even  months,  might  pass,  and  I  still  might  live  on 
there  in  bodily  safety  ;  but  so  far  as  the  world  was 
concerned  I  was  dead  already — being  fairly  caught 
in  the  slow  eddying  current  which  was  carrying 
my  hulk  steadily  and  hopelessly  into  the  dense 
wreck-filled  centre  of  the  Sargasso  Sea. 


XII 
I   HAVE    A    FEVER    AND    SEE   VISIONS 

BECAUSE  I  had  felt  hungry  and  thirsty,  and  the 
cold  chicken  and  beer  had  tasted  good,  I  had  eaten 
and  drunk  a  great  deal  more  heartily  than  was 
wholesome  for  me — being  so  weakened  by  loss  of 
blood,  and  by  the  strain  put  upon  me  by  the  dan 
ger  that  I  had  passed  through,  and  by  living  only 
on  slops  and  some  scraps  of  biscuit  since.my  rescue, 
that  my  insides  were  in  no  condition  to  deal  with 
such  a  lot  of  strong  food.  And  then,  within  an 
hour  after  I  so  unwisely  had  stuffed  myself,  came 
the  blow — in  itself  hard  enough  to  upset  a  strong 
digestion  in  good  working  order — of  discovering 
that  I  could  do  nothing  to  save  myself,  and  that 
my  hulk  was  drifting  steadily  deeper  and  deeper 
into  that  ocean  mystery  out  of  which  no  man  ever 
yet  had  come  alive. 

The  first  sign  that  I  had  that  something  was 
going  wrong  with  me  was  a  swimming  in  my 
head — so  sudden  and  so  violent  that  I  lurched  for 
ward  and  was  close  to  pitching  over  the  rail  of  the 
bridge  into  the  sea.  For  a  moment  I  fancied  that 

87 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

the  ship  had  taken  a  quick  plunge;  and  then  a 
sick  feeling  in  my  own  stomach,  and  a  blurring  of 
my  eyes  that  made  everything  seem  misty  and 
shadowy,  settled  for  me  the  fact  that  it  was  I  who 
was  reeling  about  and  that  the  ship  was  still — and 
I  had  sense  enough  to  lie  down  at  full  length  on 
the  bridge,  between  the  wheel-house  and  the  rail, 
where  I  was  safe  against  rolling  off.  And  then 
the  shadows  about  me  got  deeper  and  blacker,  and 
a  horrible  sense  of  oppression  came  over  me,  and 
I  seemed  to  be  falling  endlessly  while  myriads  of 
black  specks  arranged  themselves  in  curious  geo 
metrical  figures  before  my  eyes — and  then  the 
black  specks  and  everything  else  vanished  sudden 
ly,  and  my  consciousness  left  me  with  what  seemed 
to  me  a  great  crash  and  bang. 

Had  I  begun  matters  by  being  roundly  sick  I 
might  have  pulled  through  my  attack  without 
being  much  the  worse  for  it.  But  as  that  did  not 
happen — my  weakness,  I  suppose,  not  giving  nature 
a  chance  to  set  things  right  in  her  own  way — I  had 
a  good  deal  more  to  suffer  before  I  began  to  mend. 
After  a  while  I  got  enough  of  my  senses  back  to 
know  that  my  head  was  aching  as  though  it  would 
split  open,  and  to  realize  how  utterly  miserable  I 
was  lying  there  on  the  bridge  Avith  the  hot  sun 
shine  simmering  down  on  me  through  the  haze ; 
and  then  to  think  how  delightful  it  would  be  if 
only  I  were  back  in  the  cabin  again — where  the 


I   HAVE    A    FEVER   AND    SEE    VISIONS 

sun  could  not  stew  me,  and  where  my  berth  would 
be  easy  and  soft. 

How  I  managed  to  get  to  the  cabin  I  scarcely 
know.  I  faintly  remember  working  my  way  along 
the  bridge  on  my  hands  and  knees,  and  going  back 
ward  down  the  steps  in  the  same  fashion  for  fear 
of  falling ;  and  of  trying  to  walk  upright  when  I 
got  to  the  deck,  so  that  I  should  not  get  wet  above 
my  knees  in  the  water  there,  and  of  falling  souse 
into  it  and  getting  soaked  all  over;  and  then  of 
crawling  aft  very  slowly — stopping  now  and  then 
because  of  my  pain  and  dizziness — and  down  the 
companion  -  way  and  through  the  passage,  and  so 
into  the  cabin  at  last;  and  then,  all  in  my  wet 
clothes,  of  tumbling  anyhow  into  my  i)erth — and 
after  that  there  is  only  a  long  dead  blank. 

When  I  caught  up  with  myself  again,  night  had 
come  and  I  was  in  pitch  darkness.  My  head  still 
ached  horridly,  and  I  was  burning  hot  all  over,  and 
yet  from  time  to  time  shivering  with  creeping  chills. 
What  I  wanted  most  in  the  world  was  a  drink  of 
water ;  but  when  I  tried  to  get  up,  in  the  hope  of 
finding  some  in  the  jug  that  no  doubt  was  in  the 
state-room,  I  went  so  dizzy  that  I  had  to  plump 
back  into  my  berth  again.  As  the  night  went  on, 
and  I  lay  there  thinking  how  deliciously  the  water 
would  taste  going  cool  and  sweet  down  my  throat, 
I  got  quite  crazy  with  longing  for  it ;  and,  in  a  way, 
really  crazy — for  through  most  of  the  night  I  was 

89 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

light-headed  and  saw  visions  that  sometimes  com 
forted  me  and  sometimes  made  me  afraid.  The 
comforting  ones  were  of  fresh  green  meadows  with 
streams  running  through  them,  and  of  shady  glens 
in  the  woods  where  springs  welled  up  into  little 
basins  surrounded  by  ferns — just  such  as  I  remem 
bered  in  the  woods  which  bordered  the  creek  where 
I  used  to  go  swimming  when  I  was  a  boy.  The 
horrible  ones  were  not  clear  at  all,  and  for  that 
were  the  more  dreadful — being  of  a  fire  that  was 
getting  nearer  and  nearer  to  me,  and  of  a  blazing 
sun  that  fairly  withered  me,  and  of  huge  hot  globes 
or  ponderously  vague  masses  of  I  knew  not  what 
which  were  coming  straight  on  to  crush  me  and 
from  which  I  could  not  get  away. 

At  last  I  got  so  worn  out  with  it  all  that  I  fell 
off  into  an  uneasy  sleep,  which  yet  was  better  than 
no  sleep  and  a  little  rested  me.  When  I  woke 
again  there  was  enough  light  in  the  room  for  me 
to  see  the  water-jug,  and  that  gave  me  strength  to 
get  to  it — and  most  blessedly  it  was  nearly  full. 
And  so  I  had  a  long  drink,  that  for  a  time  checked 
the  heat  of  my  fever ;  and  then  I  lay  down  in  my 
berth  again,  with  the  jug  on  the  floor  at  my 
side. 

For  a  while  I  was  almost  comfortable.  Then 
the  fever  came  back,  and  the  visions  with  it — but 
no  longer  so  painful  as  those  which  had  been  be 
gotten  of  my  thirst.  I  seemed  to  be  in  a  region 

90 


I   HAVE    A    FEVER    AND    SEE   VISIONS 

dreamy  and  unreal.  Sometimes  I  would  see  far 
stretches  of  mountain  peaks,  and  sometimes  the 
crowded  streets  of  cities ;  but  for  the  most  part  my 
visions  were  of  the  sea — tall  ships  sailing,  and  little 
boats  drifting  over  calm  water  in  moonlight,  and 
black  steamers  gliding  quickly  past  me ;  and  still 
more  frequently,  but  always  in  a  calm  sea,  the 
broken  hulks  of  wrecked  ships  with  shattered  masts 
and  tangled  rigging  and  with  dead  men  lying  about 
their  decks,  and  sometimes  with  a  dead  man  hang 
ing  across  the  wheel  and  moving  a  little  with  the 
hulk's  motion  so  that  in  a  horrible  sort  of  way  he 
seemed  to  be  half  alive. 

Night  came  again,  bringing  me  more  pain  and 
the  burning  of  a  stronger  fever ;  and  tbfen  another 
day,  in  which  the  fever  rose  still  higher  and  the 
visions  became  almost  intolerable — because  of  their 
intense  reality,  and  of  my  conviction  all  the  while 
that  they  were  unreal  and  that  I  must  be  well  on 
the  way  toward  a  raving  madness  in  which  I  would 
die. 

It  was  at  the  end  of  this  day — or  it  may  have  been 
at  the  end  of  still  another  day,  for  I  have  no  clear 
reckoning  of  how  the  time  passed — that  my  worst 
vision  came  to  me ;  hurting  me  not  because  it  wras 
terrifying  in  itself,  but  because  it  made  me  feel  that 
even  hope  had  parted  company  with  me  at  last. 
And  it  was  more  like  a  dream  than  a  vision,  seem 
ingly  being  brought  to  my  sight  by  my  own  bodily 

91 


IN    THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

movement  —  not  something  which  floated  before 
my  eyes  as  I  lay  still. 

As  the  afternoon  went  on  my  fever  increased  a 
good  deal ;  but  in  a  way  that  was  rather  pleasant 
to  me,  for  the  pain  in  my  head  lessened  and  I 
seemed  to  be  getting  back  my  strength.  After  a 
while  I  began  to  long  to  get  out  of  the  cabin  and 
up  on  deck,  and  so  have  a  look  around  me  over  the 
open  sea;  and  with  my  longing  came  the  feeling 
that  I  was  strong  enough  to  realize  it. 

My  getting  up  seemed  entirely  real  and  natural, 
as  did  my  firm  walking — without  a  touch  of  dizzi 
ness—after  I  fairly  was  on  my  feet ;  and  all  the 
rest  of  it  seemed  real  too.  Even  when  I  came  to 
the  companion-way  I  seemed  to  go  up  the  stairs 
easity,  and  to  step  out  on  the  deck  as  stead ily  as 
though  I  had  been  entirely  well. 

The  sun  was  near  setting,  but  as  I  came  on  the 
deck  my  back  was  toward  the  sunset  and  I  saw 
only  its  red  light  touching  the  soft  swell  of  the 
weed-covered  sea  extending  far  before  me,  and  the 
same  red  light  shimmering  in  the  mist  and  caught 
up  more  strongly  on  a  bank  of  low-lying  clouds. 
The  outlook  was  much  the  same  as  that  which  I 
had  had  from  the  bridge,  only  the  weed  seemed  to 
be  packed  more  closely  and  there  was  wreckage 
about  me  everywhere.  Masts  and  spars  and  planks 
were  in  sight  in  all  directions,  sometimes  floating 
singly  and  sometimes  tangled  together  in  little 

92 


I    HAVE    A    FEVER   AND    SEE    VISIONS 

heaps;  half  a  mile  away  was  what  seemed  to  be  a 
large  ship  lying  bottom  upward ;  near  me  was  a 
perfectly  sound  boat,  having  in  its  stern  -  sheets  a 
bit  of  sail  that  fell  in  such  folds  as  to  make  me 
think  that  a  human  form  lay  under  it ;  and  off 
toward  the  horizon  was  a  large  raft,  with  a  sort 
of  mast  fitted  to  it,  and  at  the  foot  of  the  mast 
I  fancied  that  I  saw  a  woman  in  a  white  robe  of 
some  sort  stretched  out  as  though  asleep.  And  it 
seemed  to  me,  though  I  could  not  tell  why,  that 
all  this  flotsam,  and  my  own  hulk  along  with  it, 
slowly  was  drifting  closer  and  closer  together;  and 
was  packing  tighter  and  tighter  in  the  soft  oozy 
tangle  of  the  weed,  which  everywhere  Avas  matted 
so  thickly  that  the  water  did  not  show  at  all. 

Then  I  seemed  to  walk  around  to  the  other  side 
of  my  hulk  and  to  look  down  into  the  west — and 
to  feel  all  hope  dying  with  the  sight  that  I  saw 
there.  Far  away,  under  the  red  mist,  across  the 
red  gleaming  weed  and  against  a  sunset  sky  bloody 
red,  I  seemed  to  see  a  vast  ruinous  congregation  of 
wrecks ;  so  far-extending  that  it  was  as  though  all 
the  wrecked  ships  in  the  world  were  lying  hud 
dled  together  there  in  a  miserably  desolate  com 
pany.  And  with  sight  of  them  the  certain  convic 
tion  was  borne  in  upon  me  that  my  own  wreck 
presently  would  take  its  station  in  that  shattered 
fleet  for  which  there  was  no  salvation ;  and  that 
it  would  lie  among  them  rotting  slowly,  as  they 

98 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

were  rotting,  through  months  or  years — until  final 
ly,  in  its  turn,  it  would  drop  clown  from  amidst 
those  lepers  of  the  ocean,  and  would  sink  with  all 
its  foulness  upon  it  into  the  black  depths  beneath 
the  oozy  weed. 

And  I  knew,  too,  that  whether  I  already  were 
dead  and  went  down  with  it,  or  saved  my  life  for 
a  while  longer  by  getting  aboard  of  another  hulk 
which  still  floated,  sooner  or  later  ray  end  must 
come  to  me  in  that  same  way.  On  one  or  another 
of  those  rotting  dead  ships  my  own  dead  body 
surely  must  sink  at  last. 


XIII 

I    HEAR    A    STRANGE    CRY    IN    THE    NIGHT 

THAT  was  the  end  of  my  visions.  Through  the 
night  that  followed  —  my  fever  having  run  its 
course,  I  suppose — I  slept  easily ;  and  when  an 
other  day  came  and  I  woke  again  my  fever  was 
gone.  I  was  pretty  weak  and  ragged,  but  the  cut 
in  my  head  was  healing  and  no  longer  hurt  me 
much,  and  my  mind  was  clear.  There  still  was 
water  left  in  the  jug,  and  I  drank  freely  and  felt 
the  better  for  it ;  and  toward  afternoon  I  felt  so 
hungry  that  I  managed  to  get  up  and  go  to  the 
pantry  on  a  foraging  expedition  for  something 
to  eat. 

This  time  I  was  careful  not  tQ  stuff  myself.  I 
found  a  box  of  light  biscuit  and  ate  a  couple  of 
them ;  and  then  I  filled  my  water-jug  at  the  tank 
and  brought  it  and  the  biscuit  back  to  my  state 
room  without  going  on  the  deck  at  all.  My  light 
meal  greatly  refreshed  me ;  and  in  an  hour  or  two 
I  ate  another  biscuit  —  and  kept  on  nibbling  at 
them  off  and  on  through  the  night  when  I  hap 
pened  to  wake  up.  In  between  whiles  my  sleep 

95 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

was  of  a  sort  to  do  me  good ;  not  deep,  but  restful. 
With  the  coming  of  another  morning  I  felt  so 
strong  that  I  went  to  the  pantry  again  for  food  of 
a  better  sort — venturing  to  eat  a  part  of  a  tin  of 
meat  with  my  biscuit  and  to  add  to  my  water  a 
little  wine;  and  when  this  was  down  I  began  to 
feel  quite  like  myself  once  more,  and  to  long  so 
strongly  for  some  sunshine  and  fresh  air  that  I 
climbed  up  the  companion-way  to  the  deck. 

But  when  I  got  there  I  thought  at  first  that  my 
visions  were  coming  back  again.  Indeed,  what  I 
saw  was  so  nearly  my  last  vision  over  again  as  to 
make  me  half  believe,  later,  that  I  really  did  go  on 
deck  in  my  delirium  and  really  did  see  that  blood- 
red  sunset  and  all  the  rest  that  had  seemed  to  me  a 
dream.  At  any  rate,  there  was  no  doubting  this 
second  time — if  it  were  the  second  time — the  real 
ity  of  what  I  beheld  ;  and  because  I  no  longer  was 
fever-struck,  and  so  could  take  in  fully  the  wonder 
of  it,  my  astonishment  kept  my  spirits  from  being 
wholly  pulled  down. 

The  haze  was  so  thick  as  to  be  almost  like  a  fog 
hanging  about  me,  but  the  hot  sunshine  pouring 
down  into  it  gave  it  a  golden  brightness  and  I 
could  see  through  it  dimly  for  a  good  long  way  ; 
and  there  was  no  need  for  far-seeing  to  be  sure 
that  I  had  before  me  what  I  think  must  be  the 
strangest  sight  that  the  world  has  in  it  for  the 
eyes  of  man.  For  what  I  looked  at  was  the  host 

96 


I    HEAR   A    CRY    IN    THE    NIGHT 

of  wrecked  ships,  the  dross  of  wave  and  tempest, 
which  through  four  centuries— from  the  time  when 
sailors  first  pushed  out  upon  the  great  western 
ocean— has  been  gathering  slowly,  and  still  more 
slowly  wasting,  in  the  central  fastnesses  of  the 
Sargasso  Sea. 

The  nearest  edge  of  this  mass  of  wreckage  was 
not  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off  from  me  ;  but  it  swept 
away  in  a  great  irregular  curve  to  the  right  and 
left  and  vanished  into  the  golden  haze  softly— and 
straight  ahead  I  could  see  it  stretching  dimly  away 
from  me,  getting  thicker  and  closer  until  it  seemed 
to  be  almost  as  solid  as  a  real  island  would  have 
been.  And,  indeed,  it  had  a  good  deal  the  look  of 
being  a  real  island ;  the  loom  through  the  haze  of 
countless  broken  masts  rising  to  various  heights 
and  having  frayed  ropes  streaming  from  them 
having  much  the  effect  of  trees  growing  there, 
while  the  irregularities  of  the  surface  made  it  seem 
as  though  little  houses  were  scattered  thickly 
among  the  trees.  But  in  spite  of  ,the  golden  light 
which  hung  over  it,  and  which  ought  to  have  given 
it  a  cheerful  look,  it  was  the  most  desolate  and 
sorrowful  place  I  ever  saw ;  for  it  seemed  to  be 
long — and  in  a  way  really  did  belong,  since  every 
hulk  in  all  that  fleet  was  the  slowly  wasting  dead 
body  of  a  ship  slain  by  storm  or  disaster — to  that 
outcast  region  of  mortality  in  which  death  has 
achieved  its  ugliness  but  to  which  the  cleansing  of 

97 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

a  complete  dissolution  has  not  yet  been  brought 
by  time. 

Yet  the  curious  interest  that  I  found  in  this 
strange  sight  kept  me  from  feeling  only  the  horror 
of  it.  In  my  talks  with  Bowers  about  the  old-time 
sea-wonders  which  must  be  hidden  in  the  Sargasso 
Sea  my  imagination  had  been  fired ;  and  when  I 
thus  found  myself  actually  in  the  way  to  see  these 
wonders  I  half  forgot  how  useless  the  sight  was  to 
me — being  myself  about  the  same  as  killed  in  the 
winning  of  it  —  and  was  so  full  of  eagerness  to 

O  O 

press  forward  that  I  grew  almost  angry  because  of 
the  infinite  slowness  with  which  my  hulk  drifted 
on  to  its  place  in  the  ruined  ranks. 

There  was  no  hurrying  my  progress.  Around 
me  the  weed  and  wreckage  were  packed  so  closely 
that  the  wonder  was  that  my  hulk  moved  through 
it  at  all.  Of  wind  there  was  not  a  particle;  in 
deed,  as  I  found  later,  under  that  soft  golden  haze 
was  a  dead  calm  that  very  rarely  in  those  still 
latitudes  was  ruffled  by  even  the  faintest  breeze. 
Only  a  weak  swirl  of  current  from  the  far-off  Gulf 
Stream  pushed  my  hulk  onward ;  and  this,  I  sup 
pose,  was  helped  a  little  by  that  attraction  of  float 
ing  bodies  for  each  other  which  brings  chips  and 
leaves  together  on  the  surface  of  even  the  stillest 
pool.  But  a  snail  goes  faster  than  I  was  going ; 
and  it  was  only  at  the  end  of  a  full  hour  of  watch 
ing  that  I  could  see — yet  even  then  could  not  be 

" 


I    HEAR   A    CRY    IN    THE    NIGHT 

quite  certain  about  it — that  ray  position  a  very  lit 
tle  had  changed. 

Save  that  now  and  then  I  went  below  and  got 
some  solid  food  into  me — and  as  I  was  careful  to 
eat  but  little  at  a  time  I  got  the  good  of  it — I  sat 
there  on  the  deck  all  day  ]ong  gazing;  and  by 
nightfall  my  hulk  had  gone  forward  by  perhaps  as 
much  as  a  hundred  yards.  But  my  motion  was  a 
steady  and  direct  one,  and  I  saw  that  if  it  con 
tinued  it  would  end  by  laying  me  aboard  of  a  big 
steamer — having  the  look  of  being  a  cargo-boat — 
that  stood  out  a  little  from  the  others  and  evident 
ly  herself  had  not  long  been  a  part  of  that  broken 
company.  She  was  less  of  a  wreck,  in  one  way, 
than  my  own  hulk ;  for  she  floated  on  an  even 
keel  and  so  high  out  of  the  water  as  to  show  that 
she  had  no  leak  in  her ;  but  her  masts  had  been 
swept  clean  away  and  even  her  funnel  and  her 
bridge  were  gone — as  though  a  sharp-edged  sea  had 
sliced  like  a  razor  over  her  and  shaved  her  decks 
clean. 

Immediately  be3^ond  this  steamer  lay  a  big 
wooden  ship  evidently  waterlogged ;  for  she  lay 
so  low  that  the  whole  of  her  hull,  save  a  bit  of  her 
stern,  was  hidden  from  me  by  the  steamer,  and  the 
most  of  her  that  showed  was  her  broken  masts. 
And  beyond  her  again  was  a  jam  of  wrecks  so  con 
fused  that  I  could  not  make  out  clearly  any  one  of 
them  from  the  rest.  Taken  all  together,  they  made 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

a  sort  of  promontory  that  jutted  out  from  what  I 
may  call  the  main-land  of  wreckage ;  and  to  the 
right  and  left  of  the  promontory  there  went  off  in 
long  receding  lines  the  coast  of  that  country  of 
despair. 

At  last  the  sun  sunk  away  to  the  horizon,  and  as 
it  fell  off  westward  pink  tones  began  to  show  in 
the  clouds  there  and  then  to  be  reflected  in  the 
haze ;  and  these  tones  grew  warmer  and  deeper  un 
til  I  saw  just  such  another  blood-red  sunset  as  I  had 
seen  in  what  I  had  fancied  was  my  dream.  And 
under  the  crimson  haze  lay  the  dead  wrecks,  loom 
ing  large  in  it,  with  gleams  of  crimson  light  strik 
ing  here  and  there  on  spars  and  masts  and  giving 
them  the  look  of  being  on  fire.  And  then  the  light 
faded  slowly,  through  shades  of  purple  and  soft 
pink  and  warm  gray,  until  at  last  the  blessed  dark 
ness  came  and  shut  off  everything  from  my  tired 
eyes. 

Indeed,  I  was  glad  when  the  darkness  fell ;  for  as 
I  sat  there  looking  and  looking  and  feeling  the 
bitter  hopelessness  of  it  all,  I  was  well  on  my  way 
to  going  crazy  with  sorrow.  But  somehow,  not 
seeing  any  longer  the  ruin  which  was  so  near  to 
me,  and  of  which  I  knew  myself  to  be  a  part,  it 
seemed  less  real  to  me— and  so  less  dreadful.  And 
being  thus  eased  a  little  I  realized  that  I  was  hun 
gry  again,  and  that  commonplace  natural  feeling- 
did  me  good  too. 

100 


I    HEAR   A   CRY    IN    THE    NIGHT 


I  went  below  to  the  pantry,  striking  a  match  to 
see  my  way  by ;  and  when  I  had  lighted  the  big 
lamp  that  was  hanging  there — the  glass  chimney 
of  which,  in  some  wonderful  way,  had  pulled 
through  the  crash  which  had  sent  the  mizzen-mast 
flying — the  place  seemed  so  cheerful  that  my  de 
sire  for  supper  increased  prodigiously,  and  tended 
still  farther  to  down  my  sorrowful  thoughts.  I 
even  had  a  notion  of  trying  to  light  a  fire  in  the 
galley  and  cooking  over  it  some  of  the  beef  or 
mutton  that  I  had  found  in  the  cold-room ;  but  I 
gave  that  up,  just  then,  because  I  really  was  too 
hungry  to  wait  until  I  could  carry  through  so  large 
a  plan. 

But  there  was  a  plenty  of  good  food  in  tins  easi 
ly  to  be  got  at ;  and  what  was  still  better  I  felt 
quite  strong  enough  to  eat  a  lot  of  it  without  hurt 
ing  myself.  I  even  went  at  my  meal  a  little  daint 
ily,  spreading  a  napkin — that  I  got  from  a  locker 
filled  with  table  linen — on  the  pantry  dresser,  and 
setting  out  on  it  a  tin  of  chicken,  and  a  hunch  of 
cheese  and  some  bread  which  was  pretty  stale  and 
hard  and  a  pot  of  jam  to  end  off  with  ;  and  from 
the  wine -room  I  brought  a  bottle  of  good  Bor 
deaux. 

As  I  ate  my  supper,  greatly  relishing  it,  the  odd- 
ness  of  what  I  was  doing  did  not  occur  to  me  ;  but 
often  since  I  have  thought  how  strange  was  that 
meal  of  mine — in  that  brightly  lighted  cosey  little 

101 


SARGASSO   SEA 

room,  and  myself  really  cheerful  over  it  —  in  its 
contrast  with  the  utterly  desperate  strait  in  which 
I  was.  And  I  think  that  the  contrast  was  still 
sharper,  my  supper  being  ended,  when  I  fetched 
a  steamer-chair  that  I  had  noticed  lying  on  the 
floor  of  the  cabin  and  settled  myself  in  it  easily — 
facing  toward  the  stern,  so  that  the  slope  of  the 
deck  only  made  the  slope  of  the  chair  still  easier — 
and  so  sat  there  in  the  brightness  smoking  a  very 
good  cigar. 

And  after  a  while  —  what  with  my  comfort  of 
body,  and  the  good  meal  in  my  stomach,  and  the 
good  wine  there  too — a  soothing  drowsiness  stole 
over  me,  and  I  had  the  feeling  that  in  another 
moment  or  two  I  should  fall  away  into  a  delicious 
doze.  And  then,  all  of  a  sudden,  I  was  roused 
wide  awake  again  by  hearing  faintly,  but  quite 
distinctly,  a  long  and  piercingly  shrill  cry. 

I  fairlv  jumped  from  my  chair,  so  greatly  was  I 
startled ;  and  for  a  good  while  I  stood  quite  still, 
drawing  my  breath  softly,  in  waiting  wonder  for 
that  strange  cry  to  come  again.  But  it  did  not 
come  again — and  as  the  silence  continued  I  fell  to 
doubting  if  I  had  not  been  asleep,  and  that  this 
sound  which  had  seemed  so  real  to  me  had  not 
been  only  a  part  of  a  dream. 


XIV 

OF   MY    MEETING    WITH    A    MURDERED    MAN 

ROBINSON  CRUSOE'S  footprint  in  the  sand  did  not 
startle  him  more  than  that  strange  lonely  cry 
startled  me.  Indeed,  as  between  the  two  of  us,  I 
had  rather  the  worse  of  it :  for  Crusoe,  at  least, 
knew  that  he  was  dealing  with  a  reality,  while  I 
could  not  be  certain  that  I  was  not  dealing  with  a 
bit  of  a  dream  in  which  there  was  no  reality  at  all. 

For  a  long  while  I  sat  there  puzzling  over  it- 
half  hoping  that  I  might  hear  it  again,  and  so  be 
sure  of  it ;  and  half  hoping  that  I  might  not  hear 
it,  because  of  the  thrilling  tone  in  it  which  had 
filled  me  with  a  sharp  alarm.  I  was  so  shaken  that 
I  had  not  the  courage  to  go  off  to  my  berth  in  the 
cabin,  with  only  a  candle  to  light  me  there,  but 
stayed  on  in  the  little  room  that  the  lamp  lighted 
so  brightly  that  there  were  no  dark  corners  for 
my  fancy  to  people  with  things  horrible ;  and  so, 
at  last,  still  scared  and  puzzled,  I  Avent  off  to  sleep 
in  my  chair. 

When  I  woke  again  the  lamp  had  burned  out 
and  had  filled  the  place  with  a  vile  smell  of  lamp- 

103 


IN   THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

smoke  that  set  me  to  sneezing.  But  I  did  not 
mind  that  much ;  for  daylight  had  come,  and  my 
nerves  were  both  quieted  by  sleep  and  steadied  by 
that  confident  courage  which  most  men  feel — no 
matter  how  tight  a  fix  they  may  be  in— when  they 
have  the  backing  of  the  sun. 

My  first  thought  was  to  get  on  deck  and  have  a 
look  about  me;  the  feeling  being  strong  in  my 
mind  that  on  one  or  another  of  the  near-by  wrecks 
I  should  find  the  man  who  had  uttered  that  thrill 
ing  cry,  and  would  find  him  in  some  trouble  that  I 
might  be  able  to  help  him  out  of.  But  my  second 
thought,  and  it  was  the  wiser,  was  to  eat  first  of 
all  a  good  breakfast  and  so  get  strength  in  me  that 
would  make  me  ready  to  face  whatever  might 
come  along — for  a  vague  dread  hung  by  me  that  I 
was  in  the  way  of  danger,  and  whatever  it  might 
be  I  knew  that  I  could  the  better  stand  up  against 
it  after  a  hearty  meal.  Therefore  I  got  out  an 
other  tin  of  meat  and  ate  the  whole  of  it,  and  a 
hunk  of  stale  bread  along  with  it,  and  washed 
down  my  breakfast  with  a  bottle  of  beer — long 
ing  greatly  for  a  cup  of  coffee  in  place  of  the  beer, 
but  being  in  too  much  of  a  hurry  to  stop  for  that 
while  I  made  a  fire. 

As  the  food  got  inside  of  me — though  in  that 
smoky  and  smelly  place  eating  it  was  not  much  of 
a  pleasure — my  thoughts  took  a  more  cheerful 
turn.  The  hope  of  meeting  a  live  man  to  talk  to 

104 


I    MEET    WITH   A   MURDERED    MAN 

and  to  help  me  out  of  ray  utter  loneliness  rose 
strong  in  my  mind ;  and  I  felt  that  no  matter  who 
or  what  he  might  be — even  a  man  in  desperate 
sickness  and  pain,  whom  I  must  nurse  and  care  for 
—finding  him  in  that  solitude  would  make  my  own 
case  less  sad.  And  so,  when  I  went  on  deck,  my 
longing  hope  for  companionship  was  the  strongest 
feeling  in  my  heart. 

With  my  first  glance  around  I  saw  that  during 
the  night  my  hulk  had  made  more  progress  than  I 
had  counted  on ;  having  moved  the  faster,  I  suppose, 
as  it  felt  more  strongly  the  pull  of  the  mass  of 
floatage  near  by.  Be  this  as  it  may,  I  found  my 
self  so  close  alongside  the  big  cargo-boat  that  a 
good  jump  would  carry  me  aboard  of  her ;  and  I 
was  so  eager  to  begin  my  investigations  that  I  took 
the  jump  without  a  single  moment  of  delay.  And 
being  come  to  her  deck,  the  first  thing  that  I  saw 
there  was  a  dead  man  lying  in  the  middle  of  it 
with  a  pool  of  still  fresh  blood  staining  the  planks 
by  his  side.  > 

I  never  had  seen  anything  like  that,  and  as  I 
looked  at  the  dead  man  —  he  was  a  big  strong 

O  O 

coarse  fellow,  dressed  in  a  pair  of  dirty  sail-cloth 
trousers  and  in  a  dirty  checked  shirt — I  went  so 
queasy  and  giddy  that  I  had  to  step  back  a  little 
and  lean  for  a  while  against  the  steamer's  rail.  It 
was  clear  enough  that  he  had  died  fighting.  His 
face  had  a  bad  cut  on  it  and  there  was  another  on 

105 


IN   THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

his  neck,  and  his  hands  were  cut  cruelly,  as  though 
he  had  caught  again  and  again  at  a  sharp  knife  in 
trying  to  keep  it  away  from  him  ;  but  the  stab  that 
had  finished  him  was  in  his  breast,  showing  ghastly 
as  he  lay  on  his  back  with  his  shirt  open— and  no 
doubt  it  was  as  the  knife  went  into  him  there  that 
he  had  uttered  the  cry  of  mortal  agony  which  had 
come  to  me  through  the  darkness,  with  so  thrilling 
a  note  in  it,  while  I  was  sitting  in  bright  comfort 
drowsily  smoking  my  cigar.  And  then,  as  I  re 
membered  my  drowsiness,  for  a  moment  I  seemed 
to  get  back  into  it — and  I  had  a  half  hope  that  per 
haps  what  I  was  looking  at  was  only  a  part  of  a 
horrible  dream. 

Had  there  been  any  sign  of  a  living  man  about, 
of  the  murderer  as  well  as  the  murdered,  I  should 
have  been  less  broken  by  what  I  saw  ;  for  then  I 
should  have  had  something  practical  to  attend  to 
— either  in  bringing  the  other  man  to  book  on  the 
poor  dead  fellow's  account,  or  in  fighting  him  on 
my  own.  But  the  nearest  thing  to  life  in  sight, 
on  that  storm-swept  hulk  under  the  low-hanging 
golden  haze,  wras  the  rough  body  out  of  which  life 
had  but  just  gone  forever;  and  the  bloody  stains 
everywhere  on  the  deck  showing  that  he  and  an 
other  must  have  been  fighting  pretty  much  all  over 
it  before  they  got  to  an  end.  And  the  horror  of 
it  all  was  the  stronger  because  of  the  awful  and 
hopeless  loneliness :  with  the  dead-still  weed-covered 

106 


I    MEET    WITH    A    MURDERED   MAN 

ocean  stretching  away  to  the  horizon  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  only  dead  ships  tangled  and 
crushed  together  going  off  in  a  desolate  wilderness 
that  grew  fainter — but  for  its  faintness  all  the  more 
despairing — until  it  was  lost  in  the  dun-gold  murky 
thickness  of  the  haze. 

As  I  got  steadier,  in  a  little  while,  I  realized  that 
I  must  hunt  up  the  other  man,  the  one  who  had 
done  the  killing,  and  have  things  out  with  him. 
Pretty  certainly,  his  disposition  would  be  to  try  to 
kill  me ;  and  if  I  were  to  have  a  fight  on  hand  as 
soon  as  I  fell  in  with  him  it  was  plain  that  my 
chances  would  be  all  the  better  for  downing  him 
could  I  take  him  by  surprise.  I  would  have  given 
a  good  deal  just  then  for  a  knife,  and  a  good  deal 
more  for  a  pistol ;  but  the  best  that  I  could  do  to 
arm  myself  was  to  take  an  iron  belaying-pin  from 
the  rail,  and  with  this  in  my  hand  I  walked  aft  to 
the  companion-way  —  feeling  sure  that  my  best 
chance  of  coming  upon  my  man  unexpectedly  was 
to  find  him  asleep  in  the  cabin  below.  And  then, 
suddenly,  the  very  uncomfortable  thought  came  to 
me  that  there  might  be  more  than  one  man  down 
there — with  the  likelihood  that  if  I  roused  them 
they  all  would  set  upon  me  together  and  finish  me 
quickly ;  and  this  brought  me  to  a  halt  just  within 
the  companion-way,  in  the  shadowy  place  at  the 
head  of  the  cabin  stair. 

I  stood  there  for  a  minute  or  two  listening  close- 
107 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

ly,  but  I  heard  no  sound  whatever  from  below; 
and  presently  the  dead  silence  made  me  feel  rather 
ashamed  of  myself  for  being  so  easily  scared.  And 
then  I  noticed,  my  eyes  having  become  accustomed 
to  the  shadow,  that  there  was  a  splash  of  blood  on 
the  top  step  and  more  blood  on  the  steps  lower 
down — as  though  a  man  badly  hurt,  and  without 
any  one  to  help  him,  had  gone  down  the  stair 
slowly  and  had  rested  on  almost  every  step  and  bled 
for  a  while  before  he  could  go  on ;  and  seeing  this 
made  it  seem  likely  to  me  that  I  would  have  but  a 
single  man  to  deal  with,  and  he  in  such  a  state  that 
I  need  not  fear  him  much.  But  for  all  that  I  kept 
a  tight  grip  on  my  belaying -pin,  and  held  it  in 
such  a  way  that  I  could  use  it  easily,  as  I  put  my 
foot  on  the  first  of  the  bloody  steps  and  so  went  on 
down. 

The  cabin,  when  I  got  to  it,  was  but  a  small 
one — the  boat  not  being  built  to  carry  passengers— 
and  so  dusky  that  I  could  not  make  it  out  well ; 
for  the  skylight  was  covered  with  a  tarpaulin — put 
there,  I  suppose,  to  protect  it  when  the  gale  came 
on  that  the  steamer  was  wrecked  in — and  all  the 
light  there  was  came  in  from  one  corner  where  the 
covering  had  fetched  away.  It  gave  me  a  sort  of 
shivering  feeling  when  I  looked  into  that  dusky 
place,  where  I  saw  nothing  clearly  and  where 
there  was  at  least  a  chance  that  in  another  mo 
ment  I  might  be  fighting  for  my  life. 

108 


I    MEET    WITH   A   MURDERED    MAN 

I  stood  in  the  doorway,  gripping  my  belaying- 
pin,  until  I  began  to  see  more  clearly — making  out 
that  a  small  fixed  table,  with  a  water  -  jug  and 
some  bottles  and  glasses  on  it,  filled  a  half  of  the 
cabin,  and  that  three  state-room  doors  —  one  of 
which  stood  open  —  were  ranged  on  each  of  its 
sides.  And  then,  just  as  I  was  about  to  enter,  I 
fairly  jumped  as  there  came  to  me  softly  through 
the  silence  a  low  sad  sound  that  was  between  a 
groan  and  a  sigh.  But  in  an  instant  my  reason 
told  me  that  this  was  not  the  sort  of  sound  to  come 
from  a  man  whom  I  need  be  afraid  of;  and  as  it 
came  plainly  enough  from  the  state-room  of  which 
the  door  stood  open  I  stepped  briskly  over  there 
and  looked  inside. 


XV 

I  HAVE  SOME  TALK  WITH  A  MURDERER 

AT  first — the  dead-light  being  fast  over  the  port, 
and  the  state-room  in  darkness  save  for  the  little 
light  which  came  in  from  the  dusky  cabin,  and  my 
own  person  in  the  doorway  making  it  darker  still 
—I  was  sure  of  nothing  there.  But  presently  I 
made  out  a  biggish  heap  of  some  sort  in  the  lower 
berth,  and  then  that  the  heap  wras  a  man  lying 
with  his  back  toward  me  and  his  face  turned  to 
the  ship's  side. 

The  noise  of  my  footsteps  must  have  roused  him, 
either  from  sleep  or  from  the  stupor  that  his  hurts 
had  put  him  in :  for  wrhile  I  stood  looking  at  him 
his  body  moved  a  little,  and  then  his  head  turned 
slowly  and  in  the  shadows  I  caught  the  glint  of 
his  open  eyes.  What  little  light  there  was  being 
behind  me,  all  that  he  could  see — and  that  but  in 
black  outline — was  the  figure  of  a  tall  man  loom 
ing  in  the  doorway ;  but  instantly  at  sight  of  me 
he  let  off  a  yell  as  sharp  as  though  I  had  run  a 
knife  into  him,  and  then  he  covered  his  head  all 
up  with  the  bedclothes  and  lay  kicking  and  shak 
ing  as  though  he  were  in  deadly  fear. 

110 


I   HAVE   A  TALK   WITH   A  MURDERER 

I  myself  was  so  upset  by  his  outburst,  and  by  the 
half-horror  that  came  to  me  at  sight  of  his  spasms 
of  terror,  that  I  stood  for  a  moment  or  so  silent ; 
but  in  one  way  satisfied,  since  it  was  evident  that 
this  poor  scared  wretch  could  not  possibly  do  me 
harm.  Just  as  I  was  about  to  speak  to  him,  hoping 
to  soothe  him  a  little,  he  pushed  the  bedclothes 
down  from  over  his  eyes  and  took  another  look  at 
me — and  straightway  yelled  again,  and  then  cried 
out  at  me :  "  Go  away,  damn  you  !  Go  away,  damn 
you !  You're  dead  !  You're  dead,  I  tell  you  !  Do 
you  want  me  to  kill  you  all  over  again,  when  I've 
done  it  once  as  well  as  I  know  how  ?"  And  with 
that  he  fell  to  kicking  again,  and  to  shouting  out 
curses,  and  to  letting  off  the  most  dreadful  shrieks 
and  cries  —  until  suddenly  a  gasping  choking 
checked  him,  and  he  lay  silent  and  still. 

Then  the  notion  came  to  me  that  he  took  me  for 
the  dead  man  up  on  deck ;  I  being  about  the  dead 
fellow's  size  and  build,  and  therefore  looking  very 
like  him  as  I  stood  there  with  the  light  behind  me 
and  the  shadows  too  deep  for  him  to  make  out  my 
face.  And  so,  to  ease  his  mind  and  get  him  quiet — 
and  this  was  quite  as  much  for  my  own  sake  as  for 
his,  for  his  wild  fear  was  strangely  horrible  to  wit 
ness — I  spoke  to  him,  asking  him  if  he  were  badly 
hurt  and  if  I  could  help  him ;  and  at  the  sound  of 
my  voice  he  gave  a  long  sigh,  as  though  of  great 
relief,  and  in  a  moment  said :  "  Who  the  devil  are 

ill 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

you,  anyway?  I  thought  you  was  Jack — come 
back  after  my  killin'  him  to  have  another  round 
with  me.  Is  Jack  true  dead  ?" 

"  If  you  mean  the  man  on  deck,"  I  answered, 
"  he  is  true  dead— as  dead  as  any  man  can  be  with 
a  cut  straight  through  his  heart." 

He  gave  another  sigh  of  relief,  as  though  what  I 
told  him  was  a  real  comfort  to  him ;  and  in  a  mo 
ment  he  said :  "  Well,  that's  a  good  job,  and  I'm 
glad  of  it.  He's  killed  me,  too,  I  reckon ;  but  I'm 
glad  I  got  in  on  him  first  an'  fixed  him  fur  his 
damn  starin'  at  me.  Now  he's  dead  I  guess  he 
won't  stare  at  me  no  more."  He  was  silent  for 
nearly  a  minute,  and  then  he  added  :  "  Jest  get  me 
a  drink,  won't  you?  I'm  all  burnin'  up  inside. 
There's  water  in  th'  jug  out  there.  An'  put  a  good 
dash  of  gin  in  it— there's  gin  out  there,  too." 

I  got  him  some  water  from  the  jug  on  the  cabin 
table,  but  when  he  tasted  it  and  found  that  it  was 
water  only  he  began  to  swear  at  me  for  leaving 
out  the  gin ;  and  when  I  added  the  gin— thinking 
that  he  probably  was  so  used  to  strong  drink  as 
really  to  need  a  little  to  put  some  life  into  him— 
he  took  off  the  whole  glassful  at  a  gulp  and  asked 
for  more. 

I  told  him  to  wait  for  another  drink  until  I  should 
have  a  look  at  his  hurts  and  see  what  I  could  do 
to  better  them  ;  for,  while  hanging  seemed  to  be 
what  he  deserved,  I  had  a  natural  desire  to  ease 

112 


I   HAVE   A  TALK    WITH    A  MURDERER 

the  pain  that  was  racking  him — as  I  could  tell  by 
the  gasps  and  groans  which  he  was  giving  and  by 
the  sharp  motions  which  he  made. 

"  Jest  shet  your  head  an'  gimme  some  more 
drink,"  he  said  in  a  surly  way.  "  Jack's  give  me 
a  dose  that  '11  settle  me,  an'  lookin'  at  me  won't 
do  no  good  —  'cause  there's  nothin'  to  be  done. 
He's  ripped  me  up,  Jack  has,  an'  no  man  can  live 
long  that  way.  All  I  can  do  is  to  die  happy — so 
it's  a  good  thing  there's  lots  of  gin.  You'll  find  a 
kag  of  it  over  there  in  th'  fur  corner.  Me  an'  Jack 
filled  it  from  th'  spirit-room  yesterday,  afore  our 
fuss  begun." 

But  I  stuck  out  that  I  must  have  a  look  at  his 
hurts  first,  and  managed  to  open  the  dead-light— 
which  luckily  had  not  been  screwed  tight — and  so 
had  some  light  in  the  room ;  and  in  the  end,  find 
ing  that  I  would  not  give  him  a  drink  otherwise, 
he  let  me  have  my  way.  But  I  had  only  to  take  a 
glance  over  him  to  see  that  what  he  said  about  the 
other  man  having  settled  him  was  true  enough ; 
for  he  was  cut  in  a  dozen  places  savagely,  and  had 
one  desperate  slash — which  had  laid  him  all  open 
about  the  waist — from  which  alone  he  was  certain 
to  die  in  a  very  little  while. 

There  was  nothing  for  me  to  do,  and  I  did  not 

know  what  was  best  to  say  to  him ;  and  while  I 

was  casting  about  in  my  mind  to  comfort  him  a 

little,  for  his  horrible  hurts  could  not  but  stir  my 

H  113 


IN    THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

pity,  he  settled  the  matter  for  both  of  us  in  his 
own  way — grunting  out  that  he  guessed  I'd  found 
he  knew  what  he  was  talking  about,  and  then  ask 
ing  for  more  gin. 

This  time  I  gave  it  to  him,  and  gave  it  to  him 
strong — being  certain  that  he  was  past  hurting  by 
it,  and  hoping  that  it  might  deaden  his  pain.  And 
presently,  when  he  asked  for  another  drink,  I  gave 
him  that  too. 

The  liquor  did  make  him  easier,  and  it  raised  his 
spirits  so  much  that  he  fell  to  swearing  quite  cheer 
fully  at  the  man  Jack  who  had  given  him  his  death 
— and  seemed  to  feel  a  good  deal  better  for  freeing 
his  mind  that  way.  And  after  a  while  he  began  of 
his  own  accord  to  tell  me  about  the  wreck  that  he 
had  passed  through,  and  about  what  had  come 
after  it — only  stopping  now  and  then  to  ask  for 
more  gin-and-water,  and  gulping  it  down  with  such 
satisfaction  that  I  gave  him  all  he  cared  to  have. 
Indeed,  it  was  the  only  thing  that  I  could  do  to 
ease  him,  and  I  knew  that  no  matter  how  much  he 
drank  the  end  shortly  would  be  the  same. 

As  well  as  I  could  make  out  from  his  rambling 
talk,  the  storm  that  had  wrecked  him  had  happened 
about  three  months  earlier:  a  tremendous  burst  of 
tempest  that  had  sent  everything  to  smash  sud 
denly,  and  had  washed  the  captain  and  first  and 
second  officers  overboard — they  all  being  on  the 
bridge  together — and  three  or  four  of  the  crew  as 

114 


I  HAVE  A  TALK  WITH  A   MUBDEBER 

well.  At  the  same  time  the  funnel  was  carried 
away,  and  such  a  deluge  of  water  got  down  to 
the  engine-room  that  the  fires  were  drowned.  This 
brought  the  engineers  on  deck  and  the  coal-passers 
with  them;  and  the  coal-passers — "a  beach-comb- 
in'  lot,"  he  called  them — led  in  breaking  into  the 
spirit -room,  and  before  long  pretty  much  all  the 
men  of  the  crew  were  as  drunk  as  lords.  What 
happened  after  that  for  a  while  he  did  not  know  ; 
but  when  he  got  sober  enough  to  stagger  up  on 
deck  he  found  the  man  Jack  there — who  also  had 
just  come  up  after  sleeping  off  his  drunk  below 
somewhere — and  the}^  had  the  ship  to  themselves. 
The  others  might  have  found  a  boat  that  would 
float  and  tried  their  luck  that  way,  or  thev  might 
have  been  washed  overboard.  He  didn't  know 
what  had  become  of  them,  and  he  didn't  care. 
Then  the  hulk  had  taken  to  drifting  slowly,  and  at 
the  end  of  a  month  or  so  had  settled  into  the  berth 
where  I  found  her;  and  since  then  the  two  of  them 
had  known  that  all  chance  of  their  getting  back  into 
the  world  again  was  gone. 

"  At  first  I  didn't  mind  it  much,"  he  went  on, 
"  there  bein'  lashins  to  eat  aboard,  an'  more  to 
drink  than  me  an'  Jack  ever'd  hoped  to  get  a  show 
at  in  all  our  lives.  But  pretty  soon  Jack  he  begun 
to  be  worry  in'.  He'd  get  drunk,  an'  then  he'd  set 
an'  stare  at  me  like  a  damn  owl — jest  a-blinkin' 
and  a-blinkin'  his  damn  eyes.  You  hev  no  idee, 

115 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

ontil  it's  done  to  you,  how  worryin'  it  is  when  a 
drunken  man  jest  sets  an'  stares  at  you  fur  hours 
together  in  that  fool  way.  I  give  Jack  fair  warn- 
in'  time  and  agen  when  he  was  sober  that  I'd  hurt 
him  ef  he  kep'  on  starin'  at  me  like  that ;  but  then 
he'd  get  drunk  agen  right  off,  an'  at  it  he'd  go. 
I  s'pose  I  wouldn't  'a'  minded  it  in  a  ornary  way  an' 
ashore,  or  ef  we'd  had  some  other  folks  around. 
But  here  we  was  jest  alone — oh,  it  was  terr'ble 
how  much  we  was  alone ! — an'  Jack  more'n  half 
the  time  like  a  damn  starin'  owl,  till  he  a-most 
druv  me  wild. 

"  An'  Jack  said  as  how  I  was  onbearable  too. 
lie  said  it  was  me  as  stared  at  him — the  damn  fool 
not  knowin'  that  I  was  only  a-tryin'  to  squench 
his  beastly  owlin'  by  lookin'  steady  at  him ;  an' 
he  said  he'd  settle  me  ef  I  kep'  on.  An'  so  things 
went  like  that  atween  us  fur  days  an'  days — and 
all  th'  time  nothin'  near  us  but  dead  ships  with 
mos'  likely  dead  men  fillin'  'em,  an'  him  an'  mo 
knowin"1  we'd  soon  got  to  be  dead  too.  An'  the 
stinks  out  of  th'  rotten  weed,  and  out  of  all  th' 
rotten  ships  whenever  a  bit  of  wind  breezed  up 
soft  from  th'  s'uthard  over  th'  hull  mess  of  'em, 
was  horrider  than  you  hev  any  idee !  Gettin'  drunk 
*was  all  there  was  lef  fur  us;  and  even  in  gettin' 
drunk  there  wasn't  no  real  Christian  comfort,  'cause 
of  Jack's  damn  owlin'  stares. 

"  I  guess  ef  anybody  stared  steady  at  you  fur 

116 


I   HAVE  A   TALK   WITH  A   MURDERER 

better'n  three  months  you'd  want  to  kill  him  too. 
Anyway,  that's  how  I  felt  about  it ;  an'  I  told  Jack 
yesterday — soon  as  he  waked  up  in  th'  mornnin', 
an'  while  he  was  plumb  sober — that  ef  he  didn't  let 
up  on  it  I'd  go  fur  him  sure.  An'  that  fool  up  an' 
says  it  was  me  done  th'  starin',  and  I'd  got  to  stop 
it  or  he'd  cut  out  my  damn  heart — an'  them  was 
his  very  words.  An'  by  noon  yesterday  he  was 
drunker'n  a  Dutchman,  an'  was  starin'  harder'n 
ever.  An'  he  kep'  at  it  all  along  till  sunset,  an' 
when  we  come  down  into  th'  cabin  to  get  supper 
he  still  was  starin' ;  and  after  supper — when  we 
mought  'a'  been  jest  like  two  brothers  a-gettin'  drunk 
together  on  gin-an'-water — he  stared  wust  of  all. 

"  Nobody  could  'a'  stood  it  no  longer— and  up  I 
gets  an'  goes  fur  him,  keepin'  my  promise  fair  an' 
square.  At  fust  we  jest  punched  each  other  sort  o' 
friendly  with  our  fists,  but  after  a  while  Jack  give 
me  a  clip  that  roused  my  dander  and  I  took  my  knife 
to  him ;  an'  then  he  took  his  knife  to  me.  I  don't 
remember  jest  all  about  it,  but  I  kno\v  we  licked 
away  at  each  other  all  over  th'  cabin,  an'  then  up 
through  th'  companion-way,  an'  then  all  over  th' 
deck — mea-slicin'  into  him  an' him  a-slicin'  into  me 
all  th'  time.  And  at  last  he  got  this  rippin'  cut 
into  me,  an'  jest  then  I  give  him  a  jab  that  made 
him  yell  like  a  stuck  pig  an'  down  he  fell.  I 
knowed  he'd  done  fur  me,  but  somehow  I  managed 
to  work  my  way  along  th'  deck  an'  to  get  down 

117 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

here  to  my  bunk,  where  I  knowed  I'd  die  easier; 
an'  then  things  was  all  black  fur  a  while — ontil  all 
of  a  sudden  you  comes  along,  and  I  sees  you  stand- 
in'  in  the  door  there,  an'  takes  you  fur  Jack's  ghost, 
an'  gets  scared  th'  wust  kind.  But  he's  not  doin' 
no  ghost  racket,  Jack  ain't.  I've  settled  him  an' 
his  damn  owl  starin' — and  it's  a  good  job  I  have. 
Gimme  some  more  gin." 

And  then,  having  taken  the  drink  that  I  gave 
him,  he  rolled  over  a  little — so  that  he  lay  as  I  found 
him,  with  his  face  turned  away  from  me — and  for 
a  good  long  while  he  did  not  speak  a  word. 


XVI 

I   RID    MYSELF   OF    TWO   DEAD   MEN 

ONLY  an  hour  before  I  had  been  longing  for  any 
sort  of  a  live  man  to  talk  with  and  so  break  my 
loneliness ;  but  having  thus  found  a  live  man — who, 
to  be  sure,  was  close  to  being  a  dead  one— I  would 
have  been  almost  ready  to  get  rid  of  him  by  going 
back  to  my  mast  in  the  open  sea.  Indeed,  as  I 
stood  there  in  the  shadows  beside  that  dying  brute, 
and  with  the  other  brute  lying  dead  on  the  deck 
above  me,  the  feeling  of  dull  horror  that  filled  me 
is  more  than  I  can  put  into  words. 

I  think  that  the  underlying  strong  strain  of  my 
wretchedness  was  an  intense  pity  for  myself.  In 
what  the  fellow  had  told  me  I  saw  clearly  outlined 
a  good  deal  of  what  must  be  my  own  fate  in  that 
vile  solitude :  which  I  perceived  suddenly  must  be 
strewn  everywhere  with  dead  men  lying  unhidden, 
corrupting  openly ;  since  none  there  were  to  hide 
the  dead  from  sight  as  we  hide  them  in  the  living 
world.  And  I  realized  that  until  I  myself  should 
be  a  part  of  that  indecent  exhibition  of  human 
carcasses — which  might  not  be  for  a  long  while,  for 

119 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

I  was  a  strong  man  and  not  likely  to  die  soon — I 
should  have  to  dwell  in  the  midst  of  all  that  corrup 
tion  ;  and  always  with  the  knowledge  that  sooner 
or  later  I  must  take  my  place  in  it,  and  lie  with  all 
those  unhidden  others  wasting  away  slowly  in  the 
open  light  of  day.  I  got  so  sick  as  these  horrid 
thoughts  pressed  upon  me  that  I  turned  to  the 
table  and  poured  out  for  myself  a  stiff  drink  of  gin- 
and-water — being  careful  first  to  rinse  the  glass  well 
— and  I  was  glad  that  I  thought  of  it,  for  it  did  me 
good. 

My  movement  about  the  cabin  roused  up  the  dy 
ing  fellow  and  he  hailed  me  to  give  him  some  more 
gin.  His  voice  was  so  thick  that  I  knew  that  the 
drink  already  had  fuddled  him ;  and  after  he  had 
swiped  off  what  I  gave  him  he  began  to  talk  again. 
But  the  liquor  had  taken  such  hold  upon  him  that 
he  called  me  "  Jack,"  not  recognizing  me,  and  evi 
dently  fancying  that  I  was  his  mate — the  man 
whom  he  had  killed. 

At  first  he  rambled  on  about  the  storm  that  had 
wrecked  them  ;  and  then  about  their  chance  of  fall 
ing  in  with  a  passing  vessel ;  and  then  about  some 
woman  named  Hannah  who  would  be  worrying 
about  him  because  he  did  not  come  home.  As 
well  as  I  could  make  out  he  went  over  in  this  fash 
ion  most  of  what  had  happened— and  it  was  little 
enough,  in  one  way — from  the  time  that  the  two 
found  themselves  alone  upon  the  hulk  until  they 

120 


I   RID   MYSELF   OF  TWO   DEAD  MEN 

began  to  get  among  the  weed,  and  realized  pretty 
well  what  that  meant  for  them. 

"  It  ain't  no  use  now,  Jack,"  he  rambled  on.  "  It 
ain't  no  use  now  thinkin'  about  gettin'  home,  an' 
Hannah  may  as  well  stop  lookin'  fur  me.  This  is 
th'  Dead  Man's  Sea  we're  gettin'  into ;  an'  I  knows 
it  well,  an'  you  knows  it  well,  both  on  us  havin' 
heerd  it  talked  about  by  sailor-men  ever  sence  we 
come  afloat  as  boys.  Down  in  th'  middle  of  it  is 
all  th'  old  dead  wrecks  that  ever  was  sence  ships 
begun  sailin' ;  and  all  th'  old  dead  sailor-men  is 
there  too.  It's  a  orful  place,  Jack,  that  me  an' 
you's  goin'  to — more  damn  orful,  I  reckon,  than  we 
can  hev  any  idee.  Gin's  all  thet's  lef  to  us,  and 
it's  good  luck  we  hev  such  swash  ins  of  it  aboard. 
Here's  at  you,  Jack — an'  gimme  some  more  out  o' 
the  kag,  you  damn  starin'  owl." 

There  was  an  angry  tone  in  his  voice  as  he  spoke 
these  last  words ;  and  the  tone  was  sharper  a  moment 
later  when  he  went  on :  "  Can't  you  keep  your  owl 
eyes  shet,  you  beast  ?  Don't  look 'at  me  like  that, 
or  I'll  stick  a  knife  into  you.  No,  I'm  not  starin' 
at  you  ;  it's  you  who's  starin'  at  me,  damn  you. 
Stop  it !  Stop  it,  I  say,  you — "  and  he  broke  out 
with  a  volley  of  foul  names  and  curses ;  and  partly 
raised  himself,  as  though  he  thought  that  a  fight 
was  coming  on.  And  then  the  pain  which  this 
movement  caused  him  made  him  fall  back  again 
with  a  groan. 

121 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

Without  his  asking  for  it  I  gave  him  another 
drink,  which  quieted  him  a  little ;  and  then  put 
fresh  strength  into  him,  so  that  he  burst  out  again 
with  his  curses  and  abuse.  "  Cut  the  heart  out  of 
me,  will  you — you  scum  of  rottenness?  I'd  have 
you  to  know  that  cuttiri'  hearts  out  is  a  game  two 
can  play  at.  Take  that,  damn  you  !  An'  that ! 
An'  that !  Them's  fur  your  starin' — you  damn  fat- 
faced  blinkin'  owl.  And  I  mean  now  t'  keep  on 
till  I  stop  you.  No  more  of  your  owl-starin'  fur 
me !  Take  it  agen,  you  stinkin'  starin'  owl.  So ! 
An'  so  !  An'  so  !" 

He  fairly  raised  himself  up  in  the  berth  as  he 
rushed  out  his  words,  and  at  the  same  time  thrust 
savagely  with  his  right  hand  as  though  he  had  a  knife 
in  it.  For  a  minute  or  more  he  kept  his  position, 
cursing  with  a  strong  voice  and  thrusting  all  the 
time.  Suddenly  lie  gave  a  yell  of  pain  and  fell  on 
his  back  again,  crying  brokenly :  "Hell !  It's  you 
who've  finished  me !"  And  then  he  gave  two  or 
three  short  sharp  gasps,  and  after  that  there  was  a 
little  gurgling  in  his  throat,  and  then  he  was  still — 
lying  there  as  dead  as  any  man  could  be. 

This  quick  ending  of  him  came  so  suddenly  that 
it  staggered  me  ;  but  I  must  say  that  my  first  feel 
ing,  when  I  fairly  realized  what  had  happened,  was 
thankfulness  that  his  life  was  gone — for  I  had  had 
enough  of  him  to  know  that  having  much  more  of 
him  would  drive  me  mad. 

122 


I    RID   MYSELF   OF  TWO   DEAD   MEN 

In  the  telling  of  it,  of  course,  most  of  what  made 
all  this  horrible  slips  away  from  me,  and  it  don't 
seem  much  to  strain  a  man,  after  all.  But  it  really 
was  pretty  bad :  what  with  the  shadowy  light  in 
the  state-room,  for  even  with  the  port  uncovered 
it  still  was  dusky  ;  and  the  horrid  smell  there ;  and 
the  vividness  with  which  the  fellow  somehow  man 
aged  to  make  me  feel  those  days  and  weeks  of  his 
half-crazy  half-drunken  life,  while  he  and  the  other 
man  stared  at  each  other  until  neither  of  them 
could  bear  it  any  longer — and  so  took  to  fighting 
from  sheer  heart-breaking  horror  of  loneliness  and 
killed  each  other  out  of  hand.  And  back  of  all 
that  I  had  the  feeling  that  I  was  caught  in  the 
same  fate  that  had  shut  in  upon  them ;  and  was 
even  worse  off  than  they  had  been,  since  I  had  no 
one  to  light  my  life  away  with  but  must  take  it 
myself  when  I  found  my  solitude  in  that  rotten 
desolation  more  than  I  could  stand. 

Even  the  gin-and-water,  though  I  took  another 
big  drink  of  it,  could  not  hearten  me ;  but  it  did 
give  me  the  courage  to  rid  myself  of  the  two  dead 
brutes  by  casting  them  overboard ;  and,  indeed, 
getting  rid  of  them  was  a  necessity,  for  their  pres 
ence  seemed  to  me  so  befouling  that  I  found  it  hard 
to  breathe. 

With  the  man  on  deck  —  except  that  touch 
ing  him  was  hateful  to  me — I  did  not  have  much 
trouble.  I  just  made  fast  to  him  a  couple  of  heavy 

123 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

iron  bars  that  I  found  down  in  the  engine-room — 
pokers,  they  seemed  to  be,  for  serving  the  boiler 
fires — and  then  dragged  him  along  the  deck  to  a 
place  where  the  bulwarks  were  gone  and  there 
shot  him  overboard.  And  luckily  the  weed  was 
thinnish  there,  and  he  went  down  like  a  stone  into 
it  and  through  it  and  so  disappeared. 

But  with  the  man  in  the  cabin  I  had  a  harder 
job.  In  his  horridly  cut  condition  I  could  not 
bring  myself  to  touch  him,  and  the  best  that  I 
could  do  was  to  make  a  sort  of  bundle  of  him  and 
the  mattress  and  the  bedclothes  all  together — with 
a  bit  of  light  line  whipped  around  and  around  the 
whole  mass  until  it  was  snug  and  firm.  When  it 
was  finished  I  worked  it  out  of  the  state-room,  and 
rolled  it  fairly  easily  along  the  floor  of  the  cabin 
to  the  companion-way  —  and  there  it  stuck  fast. 
Budge  it  I  could  not;  for  it  was  too  long  to  roll 
up  the  stair,  and  too  heavy  for  me  to  haul  it  up 
after  me  or  to  push  it  up  before  me,  though  I  tried 
both  ways  and  tried  hard.  But  in  the  end  I  man 
aged  to  get  it  up  by  means  of  a  purchase  that  I 
rigged  from  a  ring-bolt  in  the  deck  just  outside 
the  companion-way  door;  and  once  having  it  on 
deck  I  could  manage  it  again  easily,  for  there  I 
could  roll  it  along. 

Yet  I  did  not  at  once  cast  it  overboard ;  for  I 
had  no  more  iron  bars  with  which  to  weight  it, 
and  I  knew  that  such  a  bunch  of  stuff  would  not 

124 


I   RID   MYSELF   OF  TWO   DEAD   MEN 

sink  through  tho  weed — and  that  I  should  have  it 
still  loathsomely  with  me,  lying  only  partly  hidden 
in  the  weed  right  alongside.  In  the  end  I  got  up 
a  big  iron  cinder-bucket  that  I  filled  with  coal — 
making  sure  that  the  coal  would  stay  in  it  by  lash 
ing  a  piece  of  canvas  over  the  top — and  this  I  made 
fast  to  the  bundle  by  a  rope  three  or  four  fathoms 
long.  Then  I  cast  the  bucket  overboard  through 
the  break  in  the  bulwarks,  and  as  it  shot  down 
ward  I  rolled  the  bundle  after  it — and  I  had  the 
comfort  of  seeing  the  whole  go  down  through  the 
weed  and  away  from  my  sight  forever  into  the 
hidden  water  below. 

And  then  I  sat  down  on  the  deck  and  rested ; 
for  what  little  cheering  and  strength  I  had  got 
from  the  gin-and-water  had  left  me  and  I  was  ut 
terly  miserable  and  tired  as  a  dog.  But  I  was  well 
quit  of  both  my  dead  men,  and  that  was  a  good 
job  well  done. 


XVII 

HOW    I    WALKED    MYSELF    INTO    A    MAZE 

SITTING  there  with  the  splotches  of  fresh  blood 
on  the  deck  all  around  me  was  more  than  I  could 
stomach  for  very  long.  The  sight  of  them  brought 
back  to  me  with  a  horrid  distinctness  everything 
that  I  had  seen  since  I  came  aboard  the  hulk :  the 
dead  man  lying  on  the  deck,  the  other  man  with 
his  frightful  wounds  and  his  wild  talk  and  his 
death  in  the  midst  of  his  passionate  ravings,  and 
the  disgusting  work  that  I  had  been  forced  to  do 
before  I  could  hide  their  two  bodies  from  my  sight 
in  the  sea-depths  beneath  the  tangled  weed.  And 
so,  presently,  I  scrambled  to  my  feet,  thinking  to 
get  back  to  the  Hurst  Castle  again — where  there 
was  no  taint  of  blood  to  bring  up  haunting  visions 
and  where,  though  it  seemed  a  long  while  past  to 
me,  I  had  been  in  the  company  of  honest  and  kind 
ly  men. 

But  when  I  turned  toward  this  poor  escape  from 
my  misery — which  at  best  was  but  a  change  from 
a  foul  prison  to  a  clean  one — I  saw  that  I  could 
not  easily  compass  it;  for  in  the  time  that  had 

126 


HOW  I  WALKED  MYSELF  INTO  A  MAZE 

passed  since  I  had  made  my  jump  in  the  morning — 
noon  being  by  then  upon  me  —  the  Hurst  Castle 
had  swung  around  a  little,  being  caught  I  suppose 
upon  some  bit  of  sunken  wreckage,  so  that  where 
the  two  ships  were  nearest  to  each  other  there 
was  an  open  reach  of  twenty  feet  or  more  across 
the  weed. 

This  was  too  great  a  distance  for  a  jump,  seeing 
that  it  must  be  made  from  rail  to  rail  without  a 
run  to  give  me  a  send-off ;  and  yet  it  was  so  short 
that  my  not  being  able  to  cross  it  never  even  en 
tered  my  mind.  Had  there  been  a  mast  standing 
on  the  hulk,  with  a  yard  fast  to  it,  I  could  have 
rigged  a  rope  from  the  yard-arm  and  swujng  myself 
across  in  a  moment ;  but  the  decks  being  sea-swept, 
with  nothing  left  standing  on  them,  that  way  was 
not  open  to  me;  nor  could  I  find  a  light  spar — 
even  the  flag-staff  at  the  stern  being  snapt  away 
—that  I  could  stretch  across  from  one  rail  to  the 
other  and  make  a  bridge  of.  The  only  other  thing 
that  occurred  to  me  was  to  tear  off  some  of  the 
doors  in  the  cabin  and  to  make  of  them  a  little 
raft  that  I  could  pass  by,  though  I  saw  well  enough 
that  pushing  a  raft  through  so  dense  a  tangle  even 
for  that  short  distance  would  be  a  hard  job.  And 
then  I  had  the  thought  that  perhaps  on  the  sailing- 
ship  lying  beside  me  I  might  find  a  sound  boat, 
which  would  better  answer  my  purpose  since  it 
could  be  the  more  easily  moved  through  the  weed. 

127 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

In  point  of  fact  I  could  not  have  moved  a  boat  a 
single  foot  through  that  thicket  without  cutting  a 
passage  for  it,  and  I  might  have  thrown  overboard 
three  or  four  doors  and  so  made  a  bridge  over  the 
weed  that  would  have  borne  me  easily — but  I  did 
not  know  then  as  much  about  that  strange  sea- 
growth  as  I  came  to  know  later  on. 

As  there  was  no  hurry  in  one  way,  the  ships  be 
ing  so  bedded  fast  there  that  they  were  certain  not 
to  move  more  than  a  few  feet  at  the  utmost,  I 
hunted  up  some  food  before  setting  myself  to  what 
I  knew  would  be  a  heavy  task ;  finding  cold  victuals 
of  a  coarse  sort  in  the  galley — left  from  the  last 
meal  that  the  two  men  had  made  there — and  fairly 
fresh  water  in  the  tank.  It  was  hard  work  eating, 
on  board  that  foul  ship  and  thinking  of  the  foul 
hands  which  had  made  the  food  ready ;  but  going 
without  eating  would  have  been  harder,  for  I  had 
the  healthy  appetite  of  a  sound  young  fellow  three- 
and-twenty  years  old. 

"When  I  had  finished  my  meal,  and  I  got  through 
it  quickly,  I  made  fast  a  line  to  the  steamer's  rail 
and  slipped  down  it  to  the  deck  of  the  sailing-ship 
— a  fine  vessel  of  above  a  thousand  tons,  built  of 
wood  and  on  clipper  lines.  There  was  an  imme 
diate  sense  of  relief  in  getting  aboard  of  her,  and 
away  from  the  blood-stained  steamer  where  the 
dead  men  had  been ;  but  I  saw  at  a  glance  that 
what  I  was  after  was  not  there.  She  had  carried 

128 


HOW  I  WALKED  MYSELF  INTO  A  MAZE 

four  boats  on  her  rail,  as  I  could  tell  by  the  davits, 
and  likely  enough  a  long-boat  on  her  fore-castle  as 
well.  But  all  of  them  were  gone,  and  I  could  only 
hope — since  they  were  not  there  for  my  use — that 
her  crew  had  got  safe  away  in  them :  as  well 
enough  might  have  happened  when  she  was  float 
ing  water-logged  after  the  storm  that  had  wrecked 
her  was  past. 

Without  stopping  to  explore  her — and,  indeed, 
after  what  I  had  found  on  the  steamer,  I  had  no 
fancy  for  explorations  which  might  end  in  my 
stumbling  upon  still  more  horrors — I  went  on  to  a 
trig  little  brig  lying  on  the  other  side  of  her ;  a 
beautiful  little  vessel,  with  all  her  spars  and  rigging 
save  her  bow-hamper  in  perfect  order  for  sea-going 
— but  showing  by  her  broken  bow-sprit  that  she 
had  been  in  collision,  and  by  her  depth  in  the  water 
that  after  the  collision  she  had  filled.  Naturally 
enough,  her  boats  were  gone  too  ;  and  so  I  left  her 
and  went  on. 

In  the  course  of  the  next  two  hours  or  so  I  must 
have  traversed  more  than  a  hundred  wrecks — scram 
bling  up  or  down  from  one  to  another,  as  they  hap 
pened  to  lie  low  in  the  water  or  high  out  of  it— and 
with  all  their  differences  of  size  and  build  finding 
them  in  one  way  the  same  :  all  of  them  were  dead 
ships  which  some  sort  of  a  sea-disaster  had  slain. 
And  not  one  of  them  had  a  sound  boat  left  on  board. 
The  same  reason  that  kept  me  from  exploring  the 
i  129 


IN    THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

first  of  them  kept  me  from  exploring  any  of  them : 
the  dread  of  finding  in  their  shadowy  depths  grisly 
horrors  in  the  way  of  dead  men  long  lying  there  ; 
and,  indeed,  I  was  distinctly  warned  to  hurry  away 
from  some  of  them  by  the  vile  stenches  which  came 
to  rue  and  made  my  stomach  turn  sickish  and  my 
blood  go  cold. 

I  must  have  walked  for  a  good  mile,  I  suppose, 
over  the  dead  bodies  of  these  sea-killed  ships — and 
it  was  the  most  dismal  walk  that  ever  I  had  taken 
—before  I  realized  that  even  if  I  found  a  boat  and 
got  it  overboard  it  would  be  of  no  use  to  me,  since 
there  was  no  possibility  of  my  getting  back  in  it  to 
my  own  hulk  through  that  densely  packed  mass 
of  wrecks  and  weed.  Indeed,  I  should  have  per 
ceived  this  plain  certainty  sooner  had  not  the  won 
dering  curiosity  which  this  strange  walk  bred  in  me 
lured  me  on  and  on.  And  then,  being  brought  at 
last  to  a  halt  by  my  rational  reflection,  there  came 
over  me  suddenly  a  queer  shiver  of  doubt  as  to  the 
direction  in  which  the  Hurst  Castle  lay ;  and  then 
a  still  more  shivering  doubt  as  to  whether  I  should 
be  able  to  get  back  to  her  again  by  the  way  that  I 
had  come,  or  by  any  way  at  all. 

At  the  beginning  of  my  march  in  this  haze -cov 
ered  sea-wilderness  I  had  tried  to  keep  upon  the 
outer  edge  of  it;  but  insensibly — having  to  pass 
from  ship  to  ship  rather  by  the  way  that  was  open 
to  me  than  by  the  way  that  I  wished  to  go — I  had 

130 


HOW  I  WALKED  MYSELF  INTO  A  MAZE 

wandered  into  the  thick  of  it  more  and  more. 
And  so,  when  at  last  I  took  thought  of  my  where 
abouts,  and  stopped  to  look  around  me  that  I  might 
shape  a  course  back  again,  I  found  that  in  whatever 
direction  I  turned  I  saw  only  what  I  had  seen  ahead 
of  me  when  my  hulk  was  drawing  in  upon  its  bor 
ders  :  a  dense  confusion  of  broken  and  ruined  ships 
which  fell  away  from  me  vaguely  under  the  golden 
haze.  It  had  been  a  dismal  sight  then ;  but  what 
gave  a  fresh  note  to  it,  and  a  thrilling  one,  was  that 
it  no  longer  was  only  in  front  of  me  but  was  all 
around  me — stretching  away  on  every  side  of  the 
wreck  on  which  I  was  standing,  and  growing  fainter 
and  fainter  as  the  haze  shut  down  thick  upon  it 
until  it  vanished  softly  into  the  golden  blur. 

Yet  even  then  the  full  meaning  of  my  outlook 
did  not  take  hold  of  mo.  That  I  was  in  something 
of  a  coil,  out  of  which  I  could  not  find  my  way 
easily,  was  plain  enough  ;  but  that  I  really  was  lost 
in  it  did  not  cross  my  mind.  With,  all  my  wander 
ings,  I  knew  that  I  could  not  have  traversed  any 
great  distance  ;  and  the  certainty  that  Iliad  passed 
always  from  one  ship  to  the  ship  next  touching  it 
seemed  to  make  finding  my  way  back  again  entire 
ly  open  and  plain.  And  so  I  laughed  at  myself  a 
little — though  that  was  not  much  of  a  place  for 
laughter— because  of  my  touch  of  panic  fright; 
and  then  I  turned  back  from  the  ship  on  which  I 
was  standing  to  the  one  next  to  it,  over  which  I  had 

131 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

just  come — and  so  on  to  the  next,  and  in  the  same 
way  to  three  or  four  more.  Yet  even  in  that  short 
distance— though  my  way  was  unmistakable,  for 
these  ships  touched  only  each  other  as  it  happen 
ed —  I  was  surprised  by  finding  how  differently 
things  looked  to  me  as  I  took  my  course  back 
ward  :  all  the  ups  and  downs  of  my  scrambling 
walk  being  inverted,  and  the  lay  of  the  ships  one 
to  another  and  the  look  of  them  being  entirely 
changed. 

Presently  I  got  on  board  of  a  brig — which  I  well 
remembered,  because  it  was  one  of  the  vessels  hav 
ing  about  it  a  vile  stench  that  had  made  me  cross  it 
quickly — on  the  farther  side  of  which  two  ships 
were  lying,  both  rising  a  little  above  it  and  both 
jammed  close  against  its  side.  For  a  moment  I 
hesitated,  in  doubt  as  to  which  of  the  two  I  had 
come  by;  and  I  should  have  hesitated  longer  had 
not  a  whiff  of  the  horrid  smell  struck  upon  me 
strongly  and  urged  me  to  go  on.  And  so  away  I 
went,  taking  to  the  ship  that  I  thought  was  the 
right  one ;  and  still  fancying  that  it  was  the  right 
one  when  I  got  aboard  of  it — for  both,  as  I  have 
said,  were  ships,  and  the  two  had  been  about 
equally  mauled  by  sea  and  storm.  Indeed,  except 
for  the  differences  in  their  build  and  rig,  there  was 
a  strong  family  resemblance  among  these  storm- 
broken  vessels ;  and  the  way  that  they  were 
jammed  together  made  their  build  less  noticeable, 

132 


HOW  I  WALKED  MYSELF  INTO  A  MAZE 

while  a  good  many  of  them  were  dismasted  and  so 
had  no  rig  at  all. 

Therefore  I  went  on  confidently  for  a  dozen  ships 
or  more  before  I  had  any  misgivings  that  I  had 
missed  my  way — which  was  but  a  natural  reaction 
against  my  momentary  doubtfulness— and  then  I 
found  myself  suddenly  pulled  up  short.  Eight 
above  me  was  the  side  of  a  big  iron  steamer — called 
the  City  of  Boston,  as  I  made  out  from  the  weath 
ered  name-plate  on  her  bows,  and  a  packet-boat  as 
I  judged  by  her  build — rising  so  high  out  of  the 
water  that  getting  up  to  her  deck  was  impossible : 
as  equally  impossible  was  my  having  forgotten  it 
had  I  made  such  a  rattling  jump  down/  Yet  this 
big  steamer  was  the  only  vessel  in  touch  with  the 
barque  on  which  I  was  standing,  save  the  schooner 
from  which  I  had  just  come ;  and  that  gave  me 
sharply  the  choice  between  two  conclusions :  either 
I  had  made  that  big  jump  without  noticing  it,  or 
else — and  I  felt  a  queer  lump  rising  in  my  throat 
as  I  faced  this  alternative — I  had  managed  to  go 
astray  completely  and  had  lost  myself  in  what  had 
the  look  of  being  a  hopeless  maze. 


XVIII 

I    FIND    THE    KEY    TO    A    SEA    MYSTERY 

ON  shore,  in  a  forest,  I  would  not  in  the  least 
have  minded  finding  myself  in  a  fix  of  this  sort — 
though  my  getting  into  it  would  have  been  unlike 
ly — because  getting  out  of  it  would  have  been  the 
easiest  thing  in  the  world.  I  know  a  good  deal  of 
wood-craft,  and  always  can  steer  a  course  steadily 
by  having  the  points  of  the  compass  fixed  for  me 
by  the  size  and  the  trend  of  the  branches,  and  by 
the  bark  growing  thin  or  thick  or  by  the  moss  or 
the  lack  of  moss  on  the  tree -trunks,  and  by  the 
other  such  simple  forest  signs  which  are  the  out 
come  of  the  affection  that  there  is  on  the  part  of 
things  growing  for  the  sun. 

But  what  made  my  breath  come  hard  and  my 
heart  take  to  pumping — as  I  stood  looking  up  the 
tall  side  of  the  City  of  Boston,  being  certain  that  I 
never  had  come  down  it  and  so  must  be  off  my 
course  entirely — was  my  conviction  that  in  this 
forest  of  the  ocean,  if  I  may  call  it  so,  there  were 
no  signs  which  would  help  me  to  find  my  way. 
All  around  me  was  the  same  wild  hopeless  confu- 

104 


I  FIND   THE   KEY   TO  A   SEA  MYSTERY 

sion  of  broken  wrecks  jammed  tight  together,  or 
only  a  little  separated  by  narrow  spaces  thick- 
grown  with  weed  ;  and  everywhere  overhanging  it 
heavily,  growing  denser  the  deeper  that  I  got  into 
the  tangle,  was  the  haze  that  made  it  more  confus 
ing  still.  And  under  the  haze — and  because  of  it, 
I  suppose  —  was  a  soft  languorish  warmth  that 
seemed  to  steal  my  strength  away  and  a  good  deal 
of  my  courage  too. 

But  I  knew  that  to  give  way  to  the  feeling  of 
dull  fright,  having  somehow  a  touch  of  awe  in  it, 
that  was  creeping  over  me  would  be  to  put  myself 
into  a  panic ;  and  that  once  my  wits  fairly  were 
addled  my  chance  of  getting  back  to  ;the  Hurst 
Castle  again  would  be  pretty  much  gone.  And  to 
get  back  to  her  seemed  to  me  the  only  way  of 
keeping  my  heart  up  and  of  keeping  myself  alive. 
She  was  the  one  ship,  in  all  that  great  dismal  fleet, 
aboard  of  which  I  could  be  sure  that  nothing  hor 
rible  had  happened,  and  in  which  I  could  be  certain 
that  no  loathsome  sights  were  to  be  come  upon 
suddenly  in  shadowy  nooks  and  corners  to  which 
dying  men  had  crept  in  their  extremity — trying, 
since  none  ever  would  bury  them,  to  hide  aAvay  a 
little  their  own  bodies  against  the  time  when  death 
should  be  upon  them  and  corruption  should  begin. 

And  so  I  pulled  myself  together  as  well  as  I 
could  and  tried  to  do  a  little  quiet  thinking;  and 
presently  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  must 

135 


IN   THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

find  my  way  back  to  the  brig  against  which  the 
two  ships  were  lying  and  start  afresh  from  her; 
since  it  was  pretty  certain  that  it  was  there,  by 
boarding  the  wrong  ship,  that  I  had  got  off  my 
course.  But  because  of  my  certain  knowledge  of 
Avhat  horridness  the  brig  sheltered,  and  of  the  noi 
some  stench  that  I  must  encounter  there,  it  took  a 
good  deal  of  resolution  to  put  this  plan  into  prac 
tice  ;  so  much,  indeed,  that  for  a  while  I  wavered 
about  it,  and  succeeded  at  last  in  starting  back 
again  only  by  setting  going  the  full  force  of  my 
will. 

But  I  need  not  have  whipped  myself  on  to  my 
work  so  resolutely,  nor  have  fretted  myself  in  ad 
vance  with  planning  the  rush  that  I  should  make 
across  the  brig  when  I  came  to  her — for  I  never,  so 
far  as  I  know,  laid  eyes  on  her  again.  For  a  little 
while,  as  in  my  first  turn-about,  I  found  my  way 
backward  without  much  difficulty — though  again 
the  different  look  that  the  ships  had  as  I  returned 
across  them  pulled  me  up  from  time  to  time  with 
doubts  about  them ;  and  then,  just  as  before,  I  came 
to  a  place  where  more  than  one  line  of  advance  was 
open  to  me  and  there  went  wrong — as  I  knew  a 
little  later  by  finding  myself  aboard  a  vessel  so 
strange  in  her  appearance  that  my  first  glimpse 
over  her  deck  satisfied  me  that  I  saw  her  then  for 
the  first  time. 

This  craft  was  an  old-fashioned  sloop-of-war, 
136 


I  FIND  THE  KEY   TO  A  SEA  MYSTERY 

canning  eighteen  guns ;  and  that  she  had  perished 
in  action  was  as  evident  as  that  her  death-battle 
had  been  fought  a  long  while  back  in  the  past. 
The  mauling  that  she  had  received  had  made  an 
utter  wreck  of  her — her  masts  being  shot  away  and 
hanging  by  the  board,  most  of  her  bulwarks  being 
splintered,  and  her  whole  stern  torn  open  as  though 
a  crashing  broad-side  had  been  poured  into  her  at 
short  range.  Moreover,  nearly  all  her  guns  had 
been  dismounted,  and  two  of  them  had  burst  in  fir 
ing — as  the  shattered  gun-carriages  showed. 

But  what  most  strongly  proved  the  fierceness  of 
her  last  action,  and  the  length  of  time  that  had 
passed  since  she  fought  it,  were  the  scores  of  skele 
tons  lying  about  her  deck  —  a  few  with  bits  of 
clothing  hanging  fast  to  them,  but  most  of  them 
clean  fleshless  naked  bones.  Just  as  they  had  fallen, 
there  they  lay :  with  legs  or  arms  or  ribs  splintered 
or  carried  off  by  the  shot  which  had  struck  them, 
or  with  bullet -holes  clean  through  their  skulls. 
But  the  sight  of  them,  while  it  put'  a  sort  of  awe 
upon  me,  did  not  horrify  me ;  because  time  had 
done  its  cleansing  work  with  them  and  they  were 
pure. 

Indeed,  my  imagination  was  taken  such  fast  hold 
of  by  coming  upon  this  thrilling  wreck  of  ancient 
sea-battle,  fought  out  fiercely  to  a  finish  generations 
before  ever  I  was  born,  that  for  a  little  while  I  for 
got  my  own  troubles  entirely ;  and  so  got  over  the 

137 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

shock  which  my  first  sight  of  the  riddled  sloop  and 
her  dead  crew  had  given  me  by  proving  that  again 
I  had  lost  my  way.  And  my  longing  to  know  all 
that  I  could  find  out  about  it — backed  by  the  cer 
tainty  that  I  should  not  come  upon  anything  below 
that  would  revolt  me — led  me  to  go  searching  in 
the  shattered  cabin  for  some  clue  to  the  sloop's 
name  and  nationality,  and  to  the  cause  in  which 
her  death-fight  had  been  fought. 

The  question  of  nationality  was  decided  the  mo 
ment  that  I  set  my  foot  within  the  cabin  doorway 
—there  being  a  good  deal  of  light  there,  coming  in 
through  the  broken  stern — by  my  seeing  stretched 
over  a  standing  bed-place  in  a  state-room  to  star 
board  an  American  flag ;  and  the  flag,  taken  to 
gether  with  the  ancient  build  of  the  sloop,  also  set 
tled  the  fact  pretty  clearly  that  the  action  which 
had  finished  her  must  have  been  fought  with  an 
English  vessel  in  the  War  of  1812. 

Under  the  flag  I  could  make  out  faintly  the  lines 
of  a  human  figure,  and  I  knew  that  one  of  the 
sloop's  officers— most  likely  her  commander,  from 
the  respect  shown  to  him  by  covering  him  with  the 
colors — must  be  lying  there,  just  as  his  men  had 
placed  him  to  wait  for  a  sea-burial  until  the  fight 
ing  should  come  to  an  end.  And  that  he  had  re 
mained  there  was  proof  that  not  a  man  of  the 
sloop's  company  but  had  been  killed  outright  in 
the  fight  or  had  got  bis  death-wound  in  it ;  and  also 

138 


I  FIND   THE  KEY  TO   A  SEA   MYSTERY 

of  the  fact  that  in  a  way  the  light  had  been  a  vic 
tory since  it  was  evident  that  the  enemy  had  not 

taken  possession,  and  therefore  must  have  been 
beaten  off. 

But  the  whole  matter  was  settled  clearly  by  my 
finding  the  sloop's  log-book  lying  open  on  the 
cabin  table,  just  as  it  had  lain  there,  and  had  en 
tries  made  in  it,  while  the  action  was  going  on. 
And  a  very  strange  thrill  ran  through  me  as  I  read 
on  the  mouldy  page  in  brown  faint  letters  the  date, 
"  October  5,  1814,"  and  across  the  page  -  head,  in 
bigger  brown  faint  letters  :  "  U.  S.  Sloop-of-\var 
Wasp":  and  so  knew  that  I  was  aboard  of  that 
stinging  little  war -sloop — whereof  the  record  is  a 
bright  legend,  and  the  fate  a  mystery,  of  our  Navy 
which  in  less  than  three  months'  time  successive 
ly  fought  and  whipped  three  English  war-vessels— 
the  ship  Reindeer  and  the  brigs  Avon  and  Atalanta, 
all  of  them  bigger  than  herself— and  then,  being 
last  sighted  in  September,  1814,  not  far  from  the 
Azores,  vanished  with  all  her  crew  and  officers  from 
off  the  ocean  and  never  was  seen  nor  heard  of 
again. 

There  before  me  in  the  mouldy  log-book  was  the 
record  of  her  last  action — and  in  gallantry  it  led 
the  three  others  which  have  made  her  fame. 

The  entries  began  at  7.20  A.M.  Avith  :  "  A  strange 
sail  in  sight  on  the  weather  bow  ;"  at  7.45  followed  : 
"  The  strange  brig  bearing  down  on  us.  Looks 

139 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

English";  and  at  8.10:  "The  strange  brig  has 
shown  English  colors."  Then  came  the  manoeu 
vring  for  position,  covering  more  than  an  hour,  and 
the  beating  to  general  quarters  ;  and  after  that  the 
short  entries  ran  on  quickly — in  such  rough  and 
ready  writing  as  might  be  expected  of  a  man  dash 
ing  in  for  a  moment  to  make  them,  and  then  dash 
ing  out  again  to  where  the  fighting  was  going  on  : 

"9.20  A.M.  Engaged  the  enemy  with  our  starboard  battery, 
hulling  him  severely. 

"  9.24.  Our  foremast  by  the  board. 

"9.28.  The  enemy's  broadside  in  our  stern.     Great  havoc. 

"  9.35.  The  wreck  of  the  foremast  cleared,  giving  us  steerage 
way. 

"9.40.  Our  hulling  fire  telling.     The  enemy's  battery  fire 
slacking.     His  musketry  fire  very  hot  and  galling. 

"9.45.  The  enemy  badly  hulled.     More  than  half  of  our  crew 
now  killed  or  disabled. 

"9.52.  Our  main-mast  by  the  board  and  our  mizzen  badly 
wounded.     Action  again  very  severe.     Few  of  our  men  left. 
"  9.56.  Captain  Blakeley  killed  and  brought  below. 
"  10.01.  Our  mizzen  down.     The  enemy's  fire  slacking  again. 

"10.10.  The  enemy  sheering  off,  with  the  look  of  being 
sinking. 

"10.15.  The  enemy  sinking.     We  cannot  help  him.     Most 
of  our  men  are  dead.     All  of  us  living  are  badly  hurt." 

And  there  the  entries  came  to  an  end. 
My  breath  came  fast  as  I  read  that  short  record 
of  as  brave  a  fight  as  ever  was  fought  on  salt  water; 

140 


I  FIND  THE  KEY   TO  A  SEA  MYSTERY 

and  when  my  reading  was  finished  I  gave  a  great 
sigh.  It  was  a  fit  ending  for  the  little  Wasp,  that 
death  triumphant:  and  it  was  a  fit  ending  to  a 
fight  between  American  and  English  sailors  that 
they  should  hang  at  each  other's  throats,  neither 
yielding,  until  they  died  that  way  —  they  being 
each  of  a  nation  unaccustomed  to  surrender,  and 
both  of  the  one  race  which  alone  in  modern  times 
has  held  the  sea. 


XIX 

OF    A    GOOD   TLAN    THAT   WENT    WRONG    WITH    ME 

FOR  a  while  I  was  so  stirred  by  the  enthusiasm 
which  my  discovery  aroused  in  me  that  I  had  no 
room  in  my  mind  for  any  other  thoughts.  But  at 
last,  as  I  still  stood  pondering  in  the  Wasp's  cabin, 
I  became  aware  that  the  daylight  was  fading  into 
darkness ;  and  as  I  realized  what  that  meant  for  me 
my  thoughts  came  back  suddenly  to  myself,  and 
then  all  my  enthusiasm  ebbed  away. 

I  came  out  upon  the  deck  again,  but  leaving 
everything  as  I  had  found  it — my  momentary  im 
pulse  to  lift  the  flag  having  vanished  as  I  felt  how 
fit  it  was  that  this  dead  battle-captain  should  rest 
on  undisturbed  where  his  men  had  laid  him  beneath 
the  colors  that  he  had  died  for ;  and  I  was  glad  to 
find  when  I  got  into  the  open  that  a  good  deal  of 
daylight  still  remained.  But  it  Avas  so  far  gone, 
and  wras  waning  so  rapidly,  that  I  saw  that  I  had 
little  chance  of  getting  back  to  the  Hurst  Castle 
before  nightfall ;  and  that  the  most  that  I  could 
hope  for  was  to  make  a  start  in  the  right  direction 
— and  perhaps  to  find  a  wreck  to  sleep  on  that  had 

142 


A   GOOD   PLAN   THAT   WENT   WRONG 

food  and  water  aboard  of  it,  and  thence  take  up  my 
search  again  the  next  day. 

Yet  the  dread  was  strong  upon  me,  as  I  looked 
around  upon  the  wrecks  among  which  the  Wasp  was 
bedded,  that  I  might  not  only  be  unable  to  find  the 
Hurst  Castle  again,  but  ever  to  find  my  way  across 
that  tangle  to  the  outer  edges  of  it — where  only 
was  it  possible  that  ships  on  which  were  provisions 
fit  for  eating  would  be  found.  The  very  fact  that 
the  Wasp  had  settled  into  her  position  more  than 
fourscore  years  back  made  it  certain  that  she  was 
deep  in  the  labyrinth  ;  and  the  strange  old-fashioned 
look  of  the  craft  surrounding  her  showed  me  that  I 
should  have  to  go  far  before  finding  -a  vessel 
wrecked  in  recent  times. 

But  these  disheartening  thoughts  I  crushed  down 
as  well  as  I  could,  yet  not  making  much  of  it ;  and 
as  trying  to  go  back  by  the  way  that  I  had  come  to 
the  Wasp  would  not  serve  any  good  purpose — even 
supposing  that  I  could  have  manage^!  it,  which  was 
not  likely — I  went  on  beyond  her  on  a  new  course  : 
taking  a  longish  jump  from  her  quarter -rail  and 
landing  on  the  deck  of  a  clumsy  little  ill-shapen 
brig,  with  a  high-built  square  stern  and  a  high-built 
bow  that  was  pretty  nearly  square  too.  She  was 
Dutch,  I  fancy,  and  a  merchant  vessel ;  but  she 
carried  a  little  battery  of  brass  six-pounders,  and 
had  also  a  half  dozen  pederaros  set  along  her  rail. 
And  by  her  carrying  these  old-fashioned  swivel- 

143 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

guns — which  proved  that  she  had  got  her  arma 
ment  not  much  later  than  the  middle  of  the  last 
century — and  by  the  general  look  of  her,  I  knew 
that  she  was  an  older  vessel  even  than  the  Wasp. 

This  observation,  and  the  reflection  growing  out 
of  it  that  the  deeper  I  went  into  the  Sargasso  Sea 
the  older  must  be  the  craft  bedded  in  it — since 
that  great  dead  fleet  is  recruited  constantly  by  new 
wrecks  drifting  in  upon  its  outer  edges  from  all 
ways  seaward — put  into  my  head  what  seemed  to 
me  to  be  a  very  reasonable  plan  for  finding  my  way 
back  to  the  Hurst  Castle  again ;  or.  at  least,  to  some 
other  newly  come  in  hulk  on  which  there  would  be 
fresh  water  and  sound  food.  And  this  was  to  shape 
my  course  by  considering  attentively  the  look  of 
each  wreck  that  I  came  aboard  of,  and  the  look  of 
those  surrounding  it,  and  by  then  going  forward  to 
whichever  one  of  them  seemed  to  be  of  the  most 
modern  build. 

As  the  first  step  in  carrying  out  my  plan — and  it 
seemed  to  be  such  a  good  plan  that  I  felt  almost 
light-hearted  over  it — I  got  up  on  the  rail  of  the 
old  brig  and  jumped  back  to  the  less -old  Wasp 
again  :  landing  in  her  main -channels,  and  thence 
easily  boarding  her  by  scrambling  up  what  was  left 
of  the  chains.  But  in  taking  my  next  step  I  had 
no  choice  in  the  matter,  as  only  one  other  vessel 
was  in  touch  with  the  sloop — a  heavily-built  little 
schooner  that  had  the  look  of  being  quite  as  old  as 

144 


A  GOOD  PLAN  THAT  WENT  WRONG 

the  brig  which  I  had  just  left.  And  her  age  was 
so  evident  as  I  came  aboard  of  her — having  crossed 
the  deck  of  the  Wasp  hastily,  picking  my  way 
among  the  scattered  bones — that  of  a  sudden  my 
faith  in  my  fine  plan  for  getting  out  of  the  tangle 
began  to  wane. 

In  a  general  way,  of  course,  the  conclusion  which 
I  had  arrived  at  was  a  sound  one.  Broadly  speak 
ing,  it  was  certain  that  could  I  pass  in  a  straight 
line  from  the  centre  to  the  circumference  of  that 
vast  assemblage  of  wrecks  I  constantly  would  find 
vessels  of  newer  build ;  and  so  at  last,  upon  the 
outermost  fringe,  would  come  to  the  wrecks  of 
ships  belonging  to  my  own  day.  But  'one  weak 
point  in  my  calculations  was  my  inability  to  hold 
to  a  straight  line,  or  to  anything  like  one — because 
I  had  to  advance  from  one  wreck  to  another  as 
they  happened  to  touch  or  to  be  within  jumping 
distance  of  each  other,  and  therefore  went  crook 
edly  upon  my  course  and  often  fairly  had  to  double 
on  it.  And  another  weak  point  was  that  the  sea 
in  its  tempests  recognizes  no  order  of  seniority,  but 
destroys  in  the  same  breath  of  storm  ships  just  be 
ginning  their  lives  upon  it  and  ships  which  have 
Avithstood  its  ratings  for  a  hundred  vears :  so  that 

O        O  *; 

I  very  well  might  find — as  I  actually  did  find  in 
the  case  of  the  Wasp  —  a  comparatively  modern- 
built  vessel  lying  hemmed  in  by  ancient  craft,  sur 
vivals  of  obsolete  types,  which  had  lingered  so  long 
K  145 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

upon  the  ocean  that  in  their  lives  as  in  their  deaths 
they  merged  and  blended  the  present  and  the  past. 

Thus  a  check  was  put  upon  my  plan  at  the  very 
outset;  yet  in  a  stolid  sort  of  way — knowing  that 
to  give  it  up  entirely  would  be  to  bring  despair 
upon  me,  for  I  could  not  think  of  a  better  one— 
I  tried  still  to  hold  by  it :  going  on  from  the 
clumsy  little  old  schooner  to  that  one  of  two  ves 
sels  lying  beyond  her  which  I  fancied,  though  both 
of  them  belonged  to  a  long  past  period,  was  the 
more  modern-looking  in  her  build.  And  so  I  con 
tinued  to  go  onward  over  a  dozen  craft  of  one  sort 
or  another,  holding  by  my  rule — or  trying  to  be 
lieve  that  I  was  holding  by  it,  for  all  of  the  wrecks 
which  I  crossed  were  of  an  antique  type — and  now 
and  then  being  left  with  no  chance  for  choosing 
by  finding  open  to  me  only  a  single  way.  And  all 
this  while  the  daylight  was  leaving  me — the  sun 
having  gone  down  a  ruddy  globe  beyond  the  forest 
of  wrecks  westward,  and  heavy  purple  shadows 
having  begun  to  close  down  upon  me  through  the 
low-hanging  haze. 

The  imminence  of  night-fall  made  clear  to  me 
that  I  had  no  chance  whatever  of  getting  out  from 
among  those  long-dead  ships  before  the  next  morn 
ing  ;  and  this  certainty  was  the  harder  to  bear  be 
cause  I  was  desperately  hungry  —  more  than  six 
hours  having  passed  since  I  had  eaten  anything — 
and  thirsty  too :  though  my  thirst,  because  of  the 

146 


A  GOOD  PLAN  THAT  WENT  WRONG 

dampness  of  the  haze  I  suppose,  was  not  very  se 
vere.  But  the  belief  that  I  really  was  advancing 
toward  the  coast  of  my  strange  floating  continent 
and  that  I  should  find  both  food  and  drink  when  I 
got  there,  made  me  press  forward  ;  comforting  my 
self  as  well  as  I  could  with  the  reflection  that  even 
though  I  did  have  to  keep  a  hungry  and  thirsty 
vigil  among  those  old  withered  hulks  I  yet  should 
be  the  nearer,  by  every  one  of  them  that  I  put  be 
hind  me  that  night,  to  the  freshly  come  in  wrecks 
on  the  coast  line — where  I  made  sure  of  finding  a 
breakfast  on  the  following  day.  Moreover,  I  knew 
how  forlornly  miserable  I  should  be  the  moment 
that  I  lost  the  excitement  of  scrambling  and  climb 
ing  and  just  sat  down  there  among  the  ancient 
dead,  with  the  darkness  closing  over  me,  to  wait 
for  the  slow  coming  of  another  day.  And  my 
dread  of  that  desolate  loneliness  urged  me  to  push 
forward  while  the  least  bit  of  daylight  was  left  by 
which  to  see  my  way. 

It  was  ticklish  work,  as  the  dusk  deepened,  get 
ting  from  one  wreck  to  another;  and  at  last — 
after  nearly  going  down  into  the  weed  between 
two  of  them,  because  of  a  rotten  belaying-pin  that 
I  caught  at  breaking  in  my  hand — I  had  to  resign 
myself  to  giving  over  until  morning  any  farther 
attempt  to  advance.  But  I  was  cheered  by  the 
thought  that  I  had  got  on  a  good  way  in  the  hour 
or  more  that  had  gone  since  I  had  left  the  Wasp 

147 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

behind  me;  and  so  I  tried  to  make  the  best  of 
things  as  I  cast  around  me  for  some  sheltered  nook 
on  the  deck  of  the  vessel  I  had  come  aboard  of— a 
little  clumsy  old  brig — where  my  night  might  be 
passed.  As  to  going  below,  either  into  the  cabin 
or  the  forecastle,  I  could  not  bring  myself  to  it ;  for 
my  heart  failed  me  at  the  thought  of  what  I  might 
touch  in  the  darkness  there,  arid  my  mind — sore 
and  troubled  by  all  that  I  had  passed  through, 
and  by  the  dim  dread  filling  it — certainly  would 
have  crowded  those  black  depths  with  grisly  phan 
toms  until  I  very  well  might  have  gone  mad. 

And  so,  as  I  say,  I  cast  about  the  deck  of  the 
brig  for  some  nook  that  would  shelter  me  from  the 
dampness  while  I  did  my  best  to  sleep  away  into 
forgetfulness  my  hunger  and  my  thirst ;  but  was 
troubled  all  the  while  that  I  was  making  my  round 
of  investigation  by  a  haunting  feeling  that  I  had 
been  on  that  same  deck  only  a  little  while  before. 
Growing  stronger  and  stronger,  this  feeling  be 
came  so  insistent  that  I  could  not  rest  for  it ;  and 
presently  compelled  me  to  try  to  quiet  it  by  tak 
ing  a  look  at  the  wreck  next  beyond  the  brig  to 
see  if  I  recognized  that  too — as  would  be  likely, 
since  I  must  have  crossed  it  also,  had  I  really  come 
that  way. 

I  did  not  try  to  board  this  adjoining  w^reck,  but 
only  clambered  up  on  the  rail  of  the  brig  so  that  I 
could  look  well  at  it — and  when  I  got  my  look  I 

148 


A  GOOD    PLAN  THAT   WENT   WRONG 

came  more  nearly  to  breaking  down  completely 
than  I  had  done  at  any  time  since  I  had  been  cast 
overboard  from  the  Golden  Hind.  For  there, 
showing  faintly  in  the  gloom  below  me,  was  the 
gun-set  deck  of  a  war-ship,  and  over  the  deck  dim 
ly-gleaming  bones  were  scattered — and  in  that  mo 
ment  I  knew  that  the  whole  of  my  wandering  had 
been  but  a  circle,  and  that  I  was  come  back  again 
at  the  weary  ending  of  it  to  the  Wasp. 

But  what  crushed  the  heart  of  me  was  not  that 
my  afternoon  of  toil  had  been  wasted,  but  the 
strong  conviction — from  which  I  no  longer  saw 
any  way  of  escaping — that  I  had  strayed  too  deep 
into  that  hideous  sea  -  labyrinth  ever  to  find  my 
way  out  of  it,  and  that  I  must  die  there  slowly 
for  lack  of  water  and  of  food. 


XX 

HOW   I   SPENT   A   NIGHT   WEAKILY 

I  GOT  down  from  the  rail  and  seated  myself  on 
the  brig's  deck,  leaning  my  back  against  her  bul 
warks  and  a  little  sheltered  by  their  old-fashioned 
in-board  overhang.  But  I  had  no  very  clear  no 
tion  of  what  I  was  doing ;  and  my  feeling,  so  far 
as  I  had  any  feeling,  was  less  that  I  was  moving 
of  my  own  volition  than  that  I  was  being  moved 
by  some  power  acting  from  outside  of  me — the 
sensation  of  irresponsibility  that  comes  to  one 
sometimes  in  a  dream. 

Indeed,  the  whole  of  that  night  seemed  to  me 
then,  and  still  seems  to  me,  much  more  a  dream 
than  a  reality  :  I  being  utterly  wearied  by  my  long 
hard  day's  work  in  scrambling  about  among  the 
wrecks,  and  a  little  light-headed  because  of  my 
stomach's  emptiness,  and  feverish  because  of  my 
growing  thirst,  and  my  mind  stunned  by  the  dull 
pain  of  my  despair.  And  it  was  lucky  for  me,  I 
suppose,  that  my  thinking  powers  were  so  feeble 
and  so  blunted.  Had  I  been  fully  awake  to  my 
own  misery  I  might  very  well  have  gone  crazy 

150 


HOW  I  SPENT  A   NIGHT   WEARILY 

there  in  the  darkness ;  or  have  been  moved  by  a 
sharp  horror  of  my  surroundings  to  try  to  escape 
them  by  going  on  through  the  black  night  from 
ship  to  ship — which  would  have  ended  quickly  by 
my  falling  down  the  side  of  one  or  another  of 
them  and  so  drowning  beneath  the  weed. 

Yet  the  sort  of  stupor  that  I  was  in  did  not  hold 
fast  my  inner  consciousness ;  being  rather  a  numb 
ing  cloud  surrounding  me  and  separating  me  from 
things  external — though  not  cutting  me  off  from 
them  wholly  —  while  within  this  wrapping  my 
spirit  in  a  wajr  was  awake  and  free.  And  the  re 
sult  of  my  being  thus  on  something  less  than 
speaking  terms  with  my  own  body  was  to  make 
my  attitude  toward  it  that  of  a  sympathizing  ac 
quaintance,  with  merely  a  lively  pity  for  its  ill- 
being,  rather  than  that  of  a  personal  partaker  in 
its  pains.  And  even  my  mental  attitude  toward 
myself  was  a  good  deal  of  the  same  sort :  for  my 
thoughts  kept  turning  sorrowfully  to  the  sorrow  of 
my  own  spirit  solitary  there,  shrinking  within  it 
self  because  of  its  chill  forsakenness  and  lonely 
pain  of  finding  itself  so  desolate  —  the  one  thing 
Jiving  in  that  great  sea-garnering  of  the  dead. 

And  after  a  while — either  because  my  light- 
headedness  increased,  or  because  I  dozed  and  took 
to  dreaming — I  had  the  feeling  that  the  dense 
blackness  about  me,  a  gloom  that  the  heavily  over 
hanging  mist  made  almost  palpable,  was  filling 

151 


IN   THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

with  all  those  dead  spirits  come  to  peer  curiously 
into  my  living  spirit;  and  that  they  hated  it  and 
were  envious  of  it  because  it  was  not  as  they  were 
but  still  was  alive.  And  from  this,  presently,  I 
went  on  to  fancying  that  I  could  see  them  about 
me  clad  again  dimly  in  the  forms  which  had 
clothed  them  when  they  also  in  their  time  had 
been  living  men.  At  first  they  were  uncertain 
and  shadowy,  but  before  long  they  became  so  dis 
tinct  that  I  plainly  saw  them:  shaggy -bearded 
resolute  fellows,  roughly  dressed  in  strange  old- 
fashioned  sea -gear,  with  here  and  there  among 
them  others  in  finer  garb  having  the  still  more 
resolute  air  of  officers;  and  all  with  the  fierce  de 
termined  look  of  those  old-time  mariners  of  the  pe 
riod  when  all  the  ocean  was  a  bat tl ing-place  where 
seamen  spent  their  time— and  most  of  them,  in  the 
end,  spent  their  lives  also— in  fighting  with  each 
other  and  in  fighting  with  the  sea. 

Gradually  this  throng  of  the  sea-dead  filled  the 
whole  deck  about  me  and  everywhere  hemmed  me 
in  ;  but  they  gave  no  heed  to  me,  and  were  ranged 
orderly  at  their  stations  as  though  the  service  of 
the  ship  was  being  carried  on.  Among  themselves 
they  seemed  to  talk ;  but  I  could  hear  nothing  of 
what  they  were  saying,  though  I  fancied  that  there 
was  a  humming  sound  filling  the  air  about  me  like 
the  murmur  of  a  far-away  crowd.  Now  and  then  an 
angry  bout  would  spring  up  suddenly  between  two 

152 


HOW   I   SPENT  A  NIGHT   WEARILY 

or  three  of  them ;  and  in  a  moment  they  would  be 
fighting  together,  and  would  keep  at  it  until  one 
of  their  stern  officers  was  upon  them  with  blows 
right  and  left  with  his  fists  or  with  the  butt  of  his 
pistol  or  with  the  pommel  of  his  sword — and  so 
would  scatter  the  rough  brutes,  scowling,  and  as  it 
seemed  uttering  growls  such  as  beasts  lashed  by 
their  keepers  would  give  forth. 

And  at  other  times  they  would  seem  to  be  fight 
ing  with  some  enemy  —  serving  at  their  guns 
stripped  half -naked,  with  handkerchiefs  knotted 
about  their  heads,  and  with  the  grime  of  powder- 
smoke  upon  their  bare  flesh  and  so  blackening  their 
faces  as  to  give  their  gleaming  eyes  a  still  more 
savage  look ;  falling  dead  or  wounded  with  their 
blood  streaming  out  upon  the  deck  and  making 
slimy  pools  in  which  a  man  running  sometimes 
would  slip  and  go  down  headlong— and  would  get 
up,  with  a  laugh  and  a  curse,  only  in  another  mo 
ment  to  drop  for  good  as  a  musket-ball  struck  him 
or  as  a  round-shot  sliced  him  in  two ;  and  all  of 
them  with  a  savage  joy  in  their  work,  and  going 
at  it  with  a  lust  for  blood  that  made  them  delight 
in  it — and  take  no  more  thought  than  any  other 
fighting  brutes  would  take  of  guarding  their  own 
lives. 

Or,  again,  they  would  seem  to  be  in  the  midst 
of  a  tempest,  with  the  roar  of  the  wind  and  the 
rush  of  the  waves  upon  them,  and  would  be  fight- 

153 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

ir\<r  the  gale  and  the  ocean's  turbulence  with  the 

O  O 

same  devil's  daring  that  they  had  shown  in  fight 
ing  the  enemy  —  and  with  the  same  carelessness 
as  to  what  happened  to  themselves  so  long  as  the3T 
stuck  to  their  duty  and  did  the  best  that  was  in 
them  to  bring  their  ship  safely  through  the  storm. 
And  so  they  went  on  ringing  the  changes  on  their 
old-time  wild  sea-life— their  savage  fights  among 
themselves,  and  their  battlings  with  foemen  of  a 
like  metal,  and  their  warfare  with  the  ocean — 
while  the  dark  night  wore  on. 

Yet  even  when  these  visionary  forms  were  thick 
est  about  me — and  when  it  seemed,  too,  as  though 
from  all  the  dead  hulks  about  me  the  shadows  of 
the  dead  were  rising  in  the  same  fashion  in  pale 
fierce  throngs — I  tried  to  hold  fast,  and  pretty  well 
succeeded  in  it,  to  the  steadying  conviction  that 
the  making  of  them  was  in  my  own  imagination 
and  that  they  were  not  real.  And  then,  too,  I  fell 
off  from  time  to  time  into  a  light  sleep  which  still 
was  deep  enough  to  rid  me  of  them  wholly  ;  and 
which  also  gave  me  some  of  the  rest  that  I  so  much 
needed  after  all  that  I  had  passed  through  during 
that  weary  day. 

What  I  could  not  get  rid  of,  either  sleeping  or 
waking,  was  my  gnawing  hunger  and  my  still 
worse  thirst.  For  an  hour  or  two  after  nightfall, 
the  air  being  fresher  and  the  haze  turning  to  a 
damp  cool  mist,  my  thirst  was  a  good  deal  les- 

154 


HOW  I  SPENT  A  NIGHT  WEARILY 

sened ;  which  was  a  gain  in  one  way,  though  not 
in  another — for  that  same  chill  of  night  very  search- 
ingly  quickened  my  longing  for  food.  But  as  the 
hours  wore  away  my  desire  for  water  got  the  bet 
ter  of  every  other  feeling,  even  changing  my  haunt 
ing  visions  of  dead  crews  rising  from  the  dead 
ships  about  me  into  visions  of  brooks  and  rivulets 
— which  only  made  my  burning  craving  the  more 
keen. 

Nor  did  what  little  reasoning  I  could  bring  to 
bear  upon  my  case,  when  from  time  to  time  I  partly 
came  out  from  the  sort  of  lethargy  that  had  hold 
of  me,  do  much  for  my  comforting.  It  was  pos 
sible,  I  perceived,  that  I  might  find  even  in  a  long- 
wrecked  ship  some  half-rotten  scraps  of  old  salted 
meat,  or  some  remnant  of  musty  flour,  that  at  least 
would  serve  to  keep  life  in  me.  But  even  food  of 
this  wretched  sort  would  do  me  no  good  without 
water — and  water  was  to  be  found  only  in  one  of 
the  wrecks  forming  the  outer  fringe  of  my  prison, 
toward  which  I  had  been  trying  so  long  vainly  to 
find  my  way. 

Yet  in  spite  of  my  having  already  gone  astray 
half  a  dozen  times  over  in  daylight  I  still  did  have, 
deep  down  in  me,  a  feeling  that  if  only  the  dark 
ness  would  pass  I  could  manage  to  steer  a  true 
course.  And  when  at  last,  as  it  seemed  to  me  after 
years  of  waiting  for  it,  I  began  to  see  a  little  pink 
tone  showing  in  the  mist  dimly  it  almost  seemed 

155 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

as  though  my  troubles  were  coming  instantly  to 
an  end.  And,  at  least,  the  horror  of  deep  dark 
ness,  which  all  night  long  had  been  crushing  me, 
did  leave  me  from  the  moment  when  that  first 
gleam  of  returning  daylight  appeared. 


XXI 

MY   THIEST   IS   QUENCHED,  AND   I   FIND   A   COMPASS 

IT  was  a  long  while  before  the  pale  pink  gleam 
to  the  eastward  spread  up  into  the  sky  far  enough 
to  thin  the  shadows  which  hung  over  my  dead 
fleet  heavily,  and  longer  still  before  I  had  light 
enough  to  venture  to  begin  my  scrambling  walk 
from  ship  to  ship  again.  It  seemed  to  me,  indeed, 
that  the  mist  lay  lower  and  was  a  good  deal  thicker 
than  on  the  preceding  evening ;  and  this,  with  the 
fiery  glow  that  was  in  it  when  the  sunrise  came, 
gave  me  hope  that  a  douse  of  rain  might  be  com 
ing —  which  chance  of  getting  the  water  that  I 
longed  for  heartened  me  even  more  than  did  the 
up-coming  of  the  sun. 

My  throat  was  hurting  me  a  good  deal  because 
of  its  dryness,  and  my  itching  thirst  was  all  the 
stronger  because  the  last  food  I  had  eaten — being 
the  mess  left  in  the  pan  by  the  two  men  who  had 
killed  each  other — had  been  a  salt-meat  stew.  Of 
hunger  I  did  not  feel  much,  save  for  gripes  in  my 
inside  now  and  then ;  but  I  was  weak  because  of 
my  emptiness — as  I  discovered  when  I  got  on  my 

157 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

legs,  and  found  myself  staggering  a  little  and  the 
things  around  me  swimming  before  my  eyes.  And 
what  was  worse  than  that  was  a  dull  stupidity 
which  so  possessed  me  that  I  could  not  think  clear 
ly;  and  so  for  a  while  kept  me  wandering  about 
the  deck  of  the  brig  aimlessly,  while  my  wits  went 
wool-gathering  instead  of  trying  to  work  out  some 
plan — even  a  foolish  plan— which  would  cheer  me 
up  with  hopes  of  pulling  through. 

I  might  have  gone  on  all  day  that  way,  very 
likely,  if  I  had  not  been  aroused  suddenly  by  feel 
ing  a  big  drop  of  rain  on  my  face ;  and  only  a  mo 
ment  later  —  the  thick  mist,  I  suppose,  being  sur 
charged  with  water,  and  some  little  waft  of  wind 
in  its  upper  region  having  loosened  its  vent-peg — 
I  was  in  the  thick  of  a  dashing  shower.  So  violent 
was  the  downpour  that  in  less  than  a  minute  the 
deck  was  streaming,  and  I  had  only  to  plug  with 
my  shirt  one  of  the  scuppers  amidships  to  have  in 
another  minute  or  two  a  little  lake  of  fresh  sweet 
water  from  which — lying  on  my  belly,  with  the 
rain  pelting  down  on  me — I  drank  and  drank  until 
at  last  I  was  full.  And  the  feel  of  the  rain  on  my 
body  was  almost  as  good  as  the  drinking  of  it,  for 
it  was  deliciously  cool  and  yet  not  chill. 

When  I  got  at  last  to  my  legs  again,  with  the 
dryness  gone  from  my  throat  and  only  a  little  pain 
there  because  of  the  swollen  glands,  I  found  that 
I  walked  steadily  and  that  my  head  was  clear  too ; 

158 


THIRST  QUENCHED— COMPASS  FOUND 

and  for  the  moment  I  was  so  entirely  filled  with 
water  that  I  was  not  hungry  at  all.  Presently 
the  rain  stopped,  and  that  set  me  to  thinking  of 
finding  some  better  way  to  keep  a  store  of  water 
by  me  than  leaving  it  in  a  pool  on  the  open  deck ; 
where,  indeed,  it  would  not  stay  long,  but  would 
ooze  out  through  the  scupper  and  be  sopped  up  by 
the  rotten  planks. 

And  so,  though  I  did  not  at  all  fancy  going  be 
low  on  the  old  brig,  I  went  down  the  companion- 
way  into  the  cabin  to  search  for  a  vessel  of  some 
sort  that  would  be  water-tight ;  and  shivered  a 
little  as  I  entered  that  dusky  place,  and  did  not 
venture  to  move  about  there  until  my  eyes  got 
accustomed  to  the  half  darkness  for  fear  that  I 
should  go  stumbling  over  dead  men's  bones. 

As  it  turned  out,  the  cabin  was  bare  enough  of 
dead  people,  and  of  pretty  much  everything  else ; 
from  which  I  inferred  that  in  the  long  past  time 
when  the  brig  had  been  wrecked  her  crew  had  got 
safe  away  from  her,  and  had  been  able  in  part  to 
strip  her  before  they  left  her  alone  upon  the  sea. 
What  I  wanted,  however,  they  had  riot  taken  awa}'. 
In  a  locker  I  found  a  case  made  to  hold  six  big 
bottles,  in  which  the  skipper  had  carried  his  pri 
vate  stock  of  liquors  very  likely ;  and  two  of  the 
bottles,  no  doubt  being  empty  when  the  cabin  was 
cleared,  had  been  left  behind.  They  served  my 
turn  exactly,  and  I  brought  them  on  deck  and  filled 

159 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

them  from  my  pool  of  rain-water — and  so  was  safe 
against  thirst  for  at  least  another  day. 

Being  thus  freshened  by  my  good  drink,  and 
cheered  by  the  certainty  of  having  water  by  me,  I 
sat  down  for  a  while  on  the  cabin-scuttle  that  I 
might  puzzle  out  a  plan  for  getting  to  some  ship 
so  recently  storm -slain  that  aboard  of  her  still 
would  be  eatable  food.  As  for  rummaging  in  the 
hold  of  the  brig,  I  knew  that  no  good  could  come 
of  it — she  having  lain  there,  as  I  judged,  for  a 
good  deal  more  than  half  a  century ;  and  for  the 
same  reason  I  knew  that  I  only  would  waste  time 
in  searching  the  other  old  wrecks  about  me  for 
stores.  All  that  was  open  to  me  was  to  press 
toward  the  edge  of  the  wreck-pack,  for  there  alone 
could  I  hope  to  find  what  I  was  after — and  there 
it  pretty  certainly  would  be.  But  after  my  miser 
able  experience  of  the  preceding  day  it  was  plain 
that  before  I  started  on  my  hunting  expedition  I 
must  hit  upon  some  way  of  laying  a  course  and 
holding  it ;  or  else,  most  likely,  go  rambling  from 
wreck  to  wreck  until  I  grew  so  weak  from  starva 
tion  that  on  one  or  another  of  them  I  should  fall 
down  at  last  and  die. 

Close  beside  me,  as  I  sat  on  the  hatch,  was  the 
brig's  binnacle,  and  in  it  I  could  see  the  shrivelled 
remnant  of  what  had  been  the  compass-card ;  and 
the  sight  of  this  put  into  my  head  presently  the 
thought — that  might  have  got  there  sooner  had 

ICO 


THIRST  QUENCHED— COMPASS  FOUND 

my  wits  been  sharper — to  look  for  a  compass  still 
in  working  order  and  by  means  of  it  to  steer  some 
sort  of  a  steady  course.  The  argument  against 
this  plan  was  plain  enough,  and  it  was  a  strong 
one :  that  in  holding  as  well  as  I  could  to  any 
straight  line  I  might  only  get  deeper  and  deeper 
into  my  maze — for  I  was  turned  around  complete 
ly,  and  while  I  knew  that  I  could  not  be  very  far 
from  the  edge  of  my  island  of  flotsam  I  had  not 
the  faintest  notion  in  which  direction  that  near 
edge  lay. 

For  some  minutes  longer  I  sat  on  the  hatch 
thinking  the  matter  over  and  trying  to  hit  on  some 
thing  that  would  open  to  me  a  better  prospect  of 
success ;  and  all  the  while  I  had  a  hungry  pain  in 
my  stomach  that  made  clear  thinking  difficult,  and 
that  at  the  same  time  urged  me  to  do  quickly  any 
thing  that  gave  even  the  least  promise  of  getting 
food.  And  so  the  upshot  of  the  matter  was  that  I 
slung  my  two  bottles  of  water  over  my  shoulders 
with  a  bit  of  line  that  I  found  in  the  brig's  cabin 
— making  the  slings  short,  that  the  bottles  might 
hang  close  under  my  arms  and  be  pretty  safe 
against  breaking — and  then  away  I  went  on  my 
cruise  after  a  compass  still  on  speaking  terms  with 
the  north  pole. 

That  I  would  find  one  seemed  for  a  good  while 
unlikely  ;  for  I  searched  a  score  and  more  of  wrecks, 
and  on  every  one  of  them  the  binnacle  either  was 

L  161 


IN   THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

empty  or  the  needle  entirely  rusted  away.  But  at 
last  I  came  to  a  barque  that  had  a  newer  look  about 
her  than  that  of  the  craft  amidst  which  she  was 
lying,  and  that  also  had  her  binnacle  covered  with 
a  tarred  canvas  hood  such  as  is  used  when  vessels 
are  lying  in  port.  How  the  hood  came  to  be 
where  it  was  on  that  broken  wreck  was  more  than 
I  could  account  for ;  but  by  reason  of  its  being  in 
place  the  binnacle  had  been  well  protected  from 
the  weather,  and  I  found  to  my  delight  that  the 
compass  inside  was  in  working  trim. 

It  was  an  awkward  thing  to  carry,  being  an  old- 
fashioned  big  square  box  heavily  and  clumsily 
made ;  but  I  was  so  glad  to  get  it  that  I  was  not 
for  quarrelling  with  it,  though  it  did  for  a  little  put 
me  to  a  puzzle  as  to  how  I  should  pack  it  along. 
What  I  came  to  was  to  sling  it  on  my  back  knap 
sack-fashion,  which  was  a  poor  way  to  have  it, 
since  even^  time  that  I  looked  at  it  I  had  to  un- 
sling  it  and  then  to  sling  it  again;  yet  there  was 
no  other  way  for  me  to  manage  it,  because  in  my 
scrambling  from  one  wreck  to  another  I  needs 
must  have  both  hands  free.  But  what  with  this 
big  box  strapped  to  my  shoulders,  and  the  two  big 
bottles  dangling  close  up  under  my  arm -pits,  I 
must  have  looked — only  there  was  nobody  to  look 
at  me — nothing  less  than  a  figure  of  fun. 

As  I  knew  not  which  way  I  ought  to  go,  and  so 
had  all  ways  open  to  me,  I  laid  my  course  for  the 

162 


THIRST  QUENCHED— COMPASS  FOUND 

head  of  the  compass ;  and  was  the  more  disposed 
thus  to  go  due  north  because  that  way,  as  far  as 
I  could  see  for  the  mist  and  the  mast-tangle,  the 
wrecks  lay  packed  so  close  together  that  passing 
from  one  to  another  would  be  easy  for  me — which 
was  a  matter  to  be  considered  in  view  of  the  load 
that  I  had  to  carry  along. 

But  just  as  I  was  ready  to  start  another  notion 
struck  me.  I  had  noticed  the  modern  look  of  the 
barque,  as  compared  with  the  ancient  build  of  the 
hulks  amidst  which  she  was  lying,  when  I  first 
came  aboard  of  her ;  and  as  I  was  about  to  leave 
her — my  eye  being  caught  by  the  soundness  of  a 
bit  of  line  made  fast  to  a  belaying-pin  on  her  rail 
—the  thought  occurred  to  me  that  I  might  find  on 
her  something  or  other  still  fit  to  be  called  food. 
And  when  this  thought  came  to  me  I  unslung  my 
compass  and  my  water-bottles  in  a  hurry — for  I 
was  as  ravenous  as  a  man  well  could  be. 


XXII 

I    GET    SOME    FOOD    IN    ME    AND    FORM    A    CRAZY    PLAN 

THE  sun  by  that  time  being  risen  so  high  that 
the  mist  was  changing  again  to  a  golden  haze,  and 
the  cabin  of  the  barque  well  Alighted  through  the 
skylight  over  it,  I  felt  less  creepy  and  uncomforta 
ble  as  I  went  down  the  companion-way  than  I  had 
felt  when  I  went  below  into  the  old  brig's  dusky 
cabin  in  the  early  dawn.  But  for  all  that  I  walked 
gingerly,  and  stopped  to  sniff  at  every  step  that 
I  took  downward ;  for  I  could  not  by  any  means 
get  rid  of  my  dread  of  coming  upon  some  grew- 
some  thing.  However,  the  air  was  sweet  enough 
— the  slide  of  the  hatch  being  closed,  but  the  doors 
open  and  the  cabin  well  ventilated — and  when  I 
got  to  the  foot  of  the  stair  I  saw  nothing  horrible 
in  my  first  sharp  look  around. 

It  was  a  small  cabin,  but  comfortably  fitted  ;  and 
almost  the  first  thing  that  caught  my  eye  was  a 
work-basket  spilled  down  into  a  corner  and  some 
spools  and  a  pair  of  rusty  scissors  lying  on  the 
floor,  and  then  in  another  corner  I  saw  a  little 
chair.  And  the  sight  of  these  things,  which  told 

164 


I  GET  FOOD  AND  FORM  A  PLAN 

that  the  barque's  captain  had  had  his  wife  and  his 
child  along  with  him,  gave  me  a  heavy  sorrowful 
feeling — for  all  that  if  death  had  come  to  this  sea- 
family  the  pain  of  it  must  have  been  over  quickly 
a  long  while  back  in  the  past. 

Two  of  the  state-room  doors,  both  on  the  star 
board  side,  were  open  ;  and  both  rooms  were  empty, 
save  for  the  mouldy  bedding  in  the  bunks  and  in 
one  of  them  a  canvas  bed-bag  such  as  seamen  use. 
The  doors  of  the  other  two  rooms,  there  being  four 
in  all,  were  closed,  and  I  opened  them  hesitatingly  ; 
and  felt  a  good  deal  easier  in  my  mind  when  I 
found  that  in  neither  of  them  was  what  I  dreaded 
might  be  there.  In  one  of  them  the  bunk  had 
been  left  in  disorder,  as  though  some  one  had  risen 
from  it  hurriedly,  and  a  frock  and  a  bonnet  were 
hanging  against  the  wall ;  but  the  other  one 
seemed  to  have  been  used  only  as  a  sort  of  store 
room — there  being  in  it  a  pair  of  rubber  boots  and 
a  suit  of  oil-skins,  and  a  locker  in  which  were  some 
pretty  trifles  in  shell-work  such  as  might  have  been 
picked  up  in  a  West  Indian  port,  and  a  little  rack 
of  books  gone  mouldy  with  the'  damp.  One  of 
these  books  I  opened,  and  found  written  on  the  fly 
leaf  :  "  Mary  Woodbridge,  with  Aunt  Jane's  love. 
For  the  coming  Christmas  of  1879" — and  this 
date,  though  it  did  not  settle  certainly  when  the 
barque  had  started  on  the  voyage  that  had  come  to 
so  bad  an  ending,  at  least  proved  that  she  had  not 

165 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

been  lying  where  I  found  her  for  a  very  great  many 
years. 

As  to  how  the  barque  had  got  so  deep  into  the 
wreck-pack,  she  being  so  lately  added  to  it,  I  could 
not  determine ;  but  my  conjecture  was  that  some 
storm  had  broken  the  pack  and  had  driven  her 
down  into  it,  and  then  that  the  opening  had  closed 
again,  leaving  her  fast  a  good  way  in  its  inside. 
But  about  the  way  of  her  getting  there  I  did  not 
much  bother  myself,  my  one  strong  thought  being 
that  I  had  a  chance  of  finding  on  board  of  her 
something  that  I  could  eat ;  and  so— being  by  that 
time  pretty  well  satisfied  that  I  was  safe  not  to 
come  upon  anything  horrid  hid  away  in  a  dark 
corner  of  her — I  went  at  my  farther  explorations 
with  a  will.  Indeed,  I  was  so  desperately  hungry 
by  that  time  that  even  had  I  made  some  nasty  dis 
coveries  I  doubt  if  they  would  have  held  me  back 
from  my  eager  search  for  food. 

Luckily  I  had  not  far  to  look  before  I  found 
what  I  was  after,  the  very  first  door  that  I  tried— 
a  door  in  the  forward  side  of  the  cabin— opening 
into  a  pantry  in  which  were  stowed  what  had  been, 
as  I  judged  from  the  nature  of  them  and  the  place 
where  I  found  them,  the  captain's  private  stores. 
The  door  was  not  locked,  and  a  good  many  empty 
boxes  were  lying  around  on  the  floor  with  splin 
tered  lids,  as  though  they  had  been  smashed  open  in 
a  hurry— which  looked  as  though  the  pantry  had 

166 


I  GET  FOOD  AND  FORM  A  PLAN 

been  levied  on  suddenly  to  provision  the  boats  after 
the  wreck  occurred,  and  so  made  me  hope  that  the 
captain  and  his  wife  and  baby  had  got  away  from 
the  barque  alive. 

But  the  stock  of  stores  had  been  a  big  one,  and  I 
saw  that  I  was  safe  enough  against  starvation  if 
only  a  part  of  what  was  left  still  were  sound — and 
that  uncertainty  I  settled  in  no  time  by  picking  up 
a  hatchet  that  was  lying  among  the  broken  boxes 
and  splitting  open  the  first  tin  on  which  I  laid  my 
hands.  The  tin  had  beans  in  it,  and  when  I 
cracked  it  open  that  way  more  than  half  of  them 
went  flying  over  the  floor ;  and  they  looked  so 
good,  those  blessed  beans,  that  without  stopping  to 
smell  at  them  critically,  or  otherwise  to  test  their 
soundness,  I  fell  to  feeding  myself  out  of  the  open 
tin  with  my  hand — and  never  stopped  until  all  that 
remained  of  them  were  in  my  inside.  I  don't  sup 
pose  that  they  were  the  better  for  having  lain 
there  so  long,  but  they  certainly  were  not  much 
the  Avorse  for  it — as  I  proved  more  conclusively, 
having  by  that  time  taken  off  the  sharp  edge  of 
my  hunger,  by  eating  a  part  of  another  tin  of 
them  and  finding  them  very  good  indeed.  After 
that  I  opened  a  tin  of  meat — but  on  the  instant 
that  the  hatchet  split  into  it  there  came  bouncing 
out  such  a  dreadful  smell  that  I  had  to  rush  on 
deck  in  a  hurry  with  it  and  heave  it  over  the  side. 

But  even  without  the  meat  my  food  supply  was 
167 


IN   THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

secure  to  me  for  a  good  while  onward,  there  being 
no  less  than  ten  boxes  with  two  dozen  tins  of  beans 
in  each  of  them — quite  enough  to  keep  life  in  me  for 
more  than  half  a  year.  I  rummaged  through  the 
place  thoroughly,  but  found  nothing  more  that  was 
fit  to  eat  there.  Some  boxes  of  biscuit  and  a  bar 
rel  of  flour  had  gone  musty  until  they  fairly  were 
rotten ;  and  all  the  other  things  that  I  came  across 
were  spoiled  utterly  by  damp  and  mould.  As  for 
the  stores  for  the  crew,  when  I  went  forward  to 
have  a  look  at  them,  they  were  spoiled  too — the 
flour  and  biscuit  rotten,  and  the  pickled  meat  a 
mouldy  mass  of  tough  fibre  encrusted  thickly  with 
salt. 

One  other  thing  I  did  find  in  the  captain's  pan 
try  that  was  as  good,  save  for  the  mould  that 
coated  the  outside  of  it,  as  when  it  came  aboard— 
and  because  of  its  excellent  condition  was  all  the 
more  tantalizing.  This  was  a  case  of  plug  tobacco 
— a  bit  of  which  shredded  and  filled  into  one  of  the 
pipes  that  I  found  with  it,  could  I  have  got  it 
lighted,  would  have  made  me  for  the  moment  al- 

o 

most  a  happy  man.  But  as  I  could  think  of  no 
way  of  lighting  it  I  was  worse  off  than  if  I  had  not 
found  it  at  all. 

Having  made  my  tour  of  inspection  and  taken  a 
general  inventory  of  my  new  possessions,  I  came 
on  deck  again  and  seated  myself  on  the  roof  of  the 
cabin  that  I  might  do  some  quiet  thinking  about 

168 


I  GET  FOOD  AND  FORM  A  PLAN 

what  should  be  my  next  move ;  for  I  realized  that 
only  by  a  stroke  of  rare  good  fortune  had  I  come 
upon  this  supply  of  food  far  away  from  the  coast 
of  my  continent,  and  that  should  I  leave  it  and 
keep  on  the  course  northward  that  I  had  set  for 
myself  I  very  likely  might  starve  before  another 
such  store  fell  in  my  way.  And  yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  stay  on  where  I  was  merely  because  I  was 
able  to  keep  alive  there — with  no  outlook  of  hope 
to  stay  me — was  but  making  a  bid  for  that  mad 
ness  which  comes  of  despair. 

As  to  carrying  any  great  quantity  of  food  on  with 
me,  it  was  a  sheer  impossibility.  The  tins  of  beans 
weighed  each  of  them  more  than  five  pounds,  and 
a  score  of  them  would  make  as  much  of  a  load  as 
I  well  could  carry  on  level  ground — and  far  more 
of  a  load  than  I  could  manage  in  the  scramble  that 
was  before  me  if  I  decided  to  go  on.  Indeed,  I 
had  found  my  two  bottles  of  water  a  serious  in 
convenience  ;  and  yet  I  would  have  them  to  carry 
also,  and  the  big  compass  too.  As  to  water,  how 
ever,  since  the  shower  of  the  morning,  I  felt  less 
anxiety :  and  the  event  proved  that  my  confidence 
in  the  rainfall  was  justified — for  the  showers  came 
regularly  a  little  after  dawn,  and  only  once  or 
twice  after  that  first  sharp  experience  did  I  feel 
more  than  passing  pain  from  thirst. 

I  sat  there  on  the  roof  of  the  cabin  for  a  good 
part  of  the  morning  cogitating  the  matter;  and 

169 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

in  the  end  I  could  think  of  no  better  plan  than  one 
which  promised  certainly  a  world  of  hard  labor, 
and  only  promised  uncertainly  to  serve  my  turn. 
This  was  to  stick  to  my  project  of  going  steadily 
northward — carrying  with  me  as  much  food  as  I 
could  stagger  under  —  until  I  came  again  to  the 
outer  edge  of  the  wreck  -  pack ;  but  to  safeguard 
my  return  to  the  barque,  should  my  food  give  out 
before  my  journey  was  accomplished,  by  blazing 
my  path :  that  is  to  say,  by  making  a  mark  on 
each  wreck  that  I  crossed  so  that  I  could  retrace 
my  steps  easily  and  without  fear  of  losing  my  way. 
What  I  would  gain  in  the  end  I  did  not  try  very 
clearly  to  tell  myself — having  only  a  vague  feeling 
that  in  getting  again  to  the  coast  of  my  great  dead 
continent  I  would  be  that  much  the  nearer  to  the 
living  world  once  more  ;  and  having  a  clearer  feel 
ing  that  only  by  sticking  at  some  sort  of  hard  work 
that  had  a  little  hopefulness  in  it  could  I  save  my 
self  from  going  mad.  And  I  cannot  but  think  now, 
looking  back  at  it,  that  a  touch  of  madness  already 
was  upon  me ;  for  no  man  ever  set  himself  to  a 
crazier  undertaking  than  that  to  which  I  set  my 
self  then. 


XXIII 

HOW    I    STARTED   ON   A   JOTJKNEY   DUE  NORTH 

THE  morning  was  well  spent  by  the  time  that  I 
had  made  my  mind  up,  and  I  was  growing  hungry 
again.  I  made  a  good  meal  on  what  was  left  in 
the  second  tin  of  beans  that  I  had  opened  for  my 
breakfast;  and  when  I  was  done  I  tried  to  get  a 
light  for  my  pipe  by  rubbing  bits  of  wood  together, 
but  made  nothing  of  it  at  all.  I  had  read  about 
castaways  on  desert  islands  getting  fire  that  way — 
but  they  went  at  it  with  dry  wood,  I  fancy,  and 
in  my  mist-sodden  desert  all  the  wood  was  soaked 
with  damp. 

For  that  afternoon  I  decided  to  go  forward  only 
as  far  as  I  could  fetch  it  to  be  back  on  board  the 
barque  again  by  sunset,  taking  with  me  as  many 
tins  of  beans  as  I  could  carry  arid  leaving  them 
where  I  made  my  turn :  by  which  arrangement  I 
would  save  the  carriage  of  my  supper  and  my  break 
fast,  and  would  have  a  little  store  of  victuals  to  fall 
back  upon — when  I  should  be  fairly  started  on  my 
journey — without  coming  all  the  way  again  to  the 
barque. 

171 


IN    THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

I  got  the  bed-bag  that  I  had  seen  in  the  state 
room,  and  managed  with  the  rusty  scissors  to  cut 
it  down  to  half  its  size.  Into  this  I  packed  ten 
tins  of  beans,  and  made  them  snug  by  whipping 
around  the  bag  one  end  of  a  longish  line— which 
served  when  coiled  as  a  handle  for  it ;  and,  being 
uncoiled,  enabled  me  to  haul  it  up  a  ship's  side  after 
me,  or  to  let  it  down  ahead  of  me,  or  to  sway  it 
across  an  open  space  between  two  vessels,  and  so 
go  at  my  climbing  and  jumping  with  both  hands 
free.  As  for  the  compass,  my  back  was  the  only 
place  for  it  and  I  put  it  there — where  it  did  not 
bother  me  much,  having  little  weight ;  and  I  stuck 
the  hatchet  to  blaze  my  path  with  into  a  sort  of  a 
belt  that  I  made  for  myself  with  a  bit  of  line. 

Considering  what  a  load  I  was  carrying,  and  that 
on  every  vessel  which  I  crossed  I  had  to  stop  while 
I  blazed  a  mark  on  her,  I  made  a  good  long  march 
of  it  before  the  waning  of  the  daylight  was  a  sign 
to  me  that  I  must  put  about  again ;  and  my  return 
journey  was  both  quick  and  easy,  for  I  left  the 
whole  of  my  load,  excepting  the  empty  bag,  behind 
me  and  came  back  lightly  along  my  plainly  marked 
path.  But  I  was  tired  enough  when  I  got  on  board 
the  barque  again,  and  glad  enough  to  eat  my  sup 
per  and  then  stretch  myself  out  to  sleep  upon  the 
cabin  floor. 

That  night,  being  easy  in  my  body — except  for 
my  wholesome  weariness — and  easier  in  my  mind 

172 


HOW   I  STARTED   DUE   NORTH 

because  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  was  doing  some 
thing  for  my  deliverance,  and  being  also  aboard  a 
vessel  that  I  knew  wras  clean  and  pure,  I  had  no 
visions  of  any  kind  whatever,  but  went  to  sleep  al 
most  in  a  moment,  and  slept  like  a  log,  as  the  say 
ing  is,  the  whole  night  through.  Indeed,  I  slept 
later  than  suited  my  purposes — being  for  rising 
early  and  making  a  long  day's  march  of  it — and  I 
might  have  wasted  still  more  time  in  drowsing 
lazily  had  I  not  been  wakened  a  little  before  sun 
rise  by  the  rattle  on  the  cabin  roof  of  a  dashing 
burst  of  rain.  I  was  on  deck  in  a  moment,  and 
by  stopping  a  scupper — as  I  had  done  the  previous 
morning — presently  had  by  me  a  far  bigger  supply 
of  water  than  I  needed ;  from  which  I  got  a  good 
drink  lying  down  to  it,  and  filled  an  empty  bean- 
tin  for  another  drink  after  my  breakfast,  and  so 
had  my  two  bottles  full  to  last  me  until  the  next 
day  —  and  was  pretty  well  satisfied  by  the  rain's 
recurrence  that  I  could  count  upon  a  shower  every 
morning  about  the  hour  of  dawn. 

When  I  had  finished  my  breakfast  I  stowed  ten 
tins  of  beans  in  the  bag  and  lashed  four  more  to 
gether  so  that  I  could  carry  them  on  my  shoulders — 
being  able  to  manage  them  in  that  way  because  I 
had  no  other  back-load — and  so  was  ready  to  set 
out  along  my  blazed  path.  But  before  leaving  the 
barque — hoping  never  again  to  lay  eyes  on  her — I 
took  one  more  look  through  the  cabin  to  make  sure 

173 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

that  I  had  not  passed  over  something  that  might 
be  useful  to  me  :  and  was  lucky  enough  to  find 
under  one  of  the  bunks  a  drawer — that  had  been 
hidden  by  the  tumbled  sheets  hanging  down  over 
it — in  which  were  some  shirts  and  a  suit  of  linen 
clothing  that  most  opportunely  supplied  my  needs. 
They  all  were  badly  mildewed,  but  sound  enough, 
and  the  trousers — I  had  no  use  for  the  coat  and 
waistcoat  —  fitted  me  very  well.  So  I  threw  off 
the  rags  and  tatters  that  I  was  wearing  and  put 
on  in  their  place  these  sound  garments ;  and  then 
I  picked  up  my  load  and  was  off. 

Not  having  to  stop  to  take  bearings  or  to  blaze 
my  way,  I  made  such  good  time  that  I  got  to  the 
end  of  the  course  over  which  I  had  spent  a  good 
part  of  the  previous  afternoon  in  not  much  more 
than  three  hours.  I  was  pretty  well  pleased  to 
find  that  I  could  make  such  brisk  marching  under 
such  a  load ;  for  it  showed  me  that  even  when  I 
should  get  a  long  way  from  my  base  of  supplies, 
that  is  to  say  from  the  barque,  I  still  could  return 
to  it  at  no  great  expense  of  time— and  the  thought 
never  entered  my  head  that  time  was  of  no  value 
to  me,  since  only  by  what  would  be  close  upon  a 
miracle  could  I  hope  for  anything  better  than  to 
find  ways  for  killing  it  through  all  the  remainder 
of  my  days. 

Being  thus  come  to  my  place  of  deposit  I  had 
to  rearrange  my  packing— going  forward  with  a 

174 


HOW   I  STARTED   DUE   NORTH 

lighter  load  of  food  that  I  might  carry  also  the 
compass  and  the  hatchet;  and  going  slowly  be 
cause  of  my  constant  stops  to  take  fresh  bearings 
and  to  mark  my  path.  But  that  time  I  went 
straight  onward  until  nightfall ;  and  my  heart  sank 
a  good  deal  within  me  as  I  found  that  the  farther  I 
went  the  more  antique  in  model,  and  the  more 
anciently  sea-worn,  were  the  wrecks  which  I  came 
Up0n_and  so  I  knew  that  I  must  be  making  my 
way  steadily  into  the  very  depths  of  my  maze. 

Yet  I  could  not  see  that  I  would  gain  anything  by 
going  back  to  the  barque  and  thence  taking  a  fresh 
departure.  The  barque,  as  I  knew  certainly  from  the 
sort  of  craft  surrounding  her,  was  so  deeply  bedded 
in  the  pack  that  no  matter  how  I  headed  from  her 
I  should  have  to  go  far  before  I  came  again  to  the 
coast  of  it ;  and  on  the  other  hand  I  thought  that 
by  holding  to  my  course  northward  I  might  work 
my  way  in  no  great  time  across  the  innermost 
huddle  of  ancient  wrecks — for  of  the  vast  number 
of  these  I  had  no  notion  then — and  so  to  the  outer 
belt  of  wrecks  new-made:  on  board  of  which  I 
certainly  should  find  fresh  food  in  plenty,  and  from 
which  (as  I  forced  myself  to  believe)  I  might  get 
away  once  more  into  the  living  world.  And  so  I 
pushed  on  doggedly  until  the  twilight  changed  to 
dusk  and  I  could  not  venture  farther ;  and  then  I 
ate  my  supper  on  board  of  a  strange  old  ship,  as 
round  as  a  dumpling  and  with  a  high  bow  and  a 

175 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

higher  stern;  and  when  I  had  finished  settled  my 
self  for  the  night,  being  very  weary,  under  the  iii- 
hang  of  her  heavy  bulging  side. 

When  morning  came — and  a  shower  with  it  that 
gave  me  what  drink  I  wanted  and  a  store  of  water 
for  the  day — I  debated  for  a  while  with  myself  as 
to  whether  I  should  go  onward  with  my  whole 
load,  or  leave  a  part  of  it  in  a  fresh  deposit  to 
which  I  could  return  at  will.  The  second  course 
seemed  the  better  to  me ;  and,  indeed,  it  was  nec 
essary  for  me  to  go  light-loaded  in  order  to  get  on 
at  all.  For  I  had  come  among  ships  of  such 
strange  old-fashioned  build,  standing  at  bow  and 
stern  so  high  out  of  the  water,  that  unless  they 
happened  to  be  lying  side  by  side  so  that  I  could 
pass  from  one  to  another  amidships— which  was 
the  case  but  seldom — I  had  almost  as  much  climb 
ing  up  and  down  among  them  as  though  I  had 
been  a  monkey  mounting  and  descending  a  row 
of  trees. 

Therefore  I  ate  as  much  breakfast  as  I  could  pack 
into  myself — that  being  as  good  a  way  as  any  other 
of  carrying  food  with  me  —  and  then  I  tore  the 
sleeves  from  my  shirt  and  stuffed  them  from  the 
tins  that  I  opened  until  I  had  two  great  bean  sau 
sages,  which  I  fastened  belt-fashion  about  my  waist 
and  so  carried  without  any  trouble  at  all.  Indeed, 
but  for  this  new  arrangement  of  my  load  I  doubt 
if  I  could  have  gone  onward;  and  even  with  it  I 

176 


HOW   I  STARTED   DUE   NORTH 

had  all  that  I  could  do  to  make  my  way.  The  bag 
with  the  remaining  tins  in  it  I  stood  away  inside 
the  cabin  of  the  old  ship— which  I  should  have  ex 
plored  farther,  so  strange -looking  was  it,  but  for 
my  eager  desire  to  get  on ;  and  I  felt  quite  sure 
that  I  would  find  all  just  as  I  had  left  it  there 
even  though  I  did  not  come  back  again  for  twenty 
years. 


XXIV 

OF   WHAT   I    FOUND    ABOARD    A    SPANISH    GALLEON 

BENT  as  I  was  upon  hurrying  forward,  I  could 
not  but  stop  often  in  my  wearying  marches — which 
began  each  morning  at  sunrise  and  did  not  end 
until  dusk — to  gaze  about  me  in  wonder  at  the 
curious  ancient  craft  across  which  lay  my  way.  It 
seemed  to  me,  indeed,  as  though  I  had  got  into  a 
great  marine  museum  where  were  stored  together 
all  manner  of  such  antique  vessels  as  not  for  two 
full  centuries,  and  a  good  many  of  them  for  still 
longer,  had  sailed  the  seas.  Some  of  them  were 
mere  shallops,  so  little  that  sailormen  nowadays 
would  not  venture  to  go  a-coasting  in  them,  and 
others  were  great  round-bellied  old  merchantmen- 
yet  half  war-ships,  too — with  high-built  fore-castles, 
and  towering  poops  blossoming  out  into  rich  carv 
ings  and  having  galleries  rising  one  above  another 
and  with  a  big  iron  lantern  at  the  top  of  all.  And 
all  of  them  had  been  shattered  in  fights  and  tem 
pests,  and  were  so  rotten  with  age  that  the  decks 
beneath  my  feet  were  soft  and  spongy;  and  all 
were  weathered  to  a  soft  gray,  or  to  a  brownish 

178 


ABOARD  A  SPANISH  GALLEON 

blackness,  with  here  and  there  a  gleam  of  bright 
upon  them  where  there  still  clung  fast  in  some 
protected  recess  of  their  carving  a  little  of  the 
heavy  gilding  with  which  it  all  had  been  overlaid. 
Guns  of  some  sort  were  on  every  one  of  them — 
ranging  upward  from  little  swivels  mounted  on  the 
rail  (mere  pop-guns  they  looked  like)  to  long  bronze 
pieces  of  which  the  delicate  ornamentation  was  lost 
in  a  thick  coat  of  verdigris  that  had  been  gathering 
slowly  through  years  and  years.  But  as  to  the 
strange  rig  that  they  had  worn  in  their  days  of 
active  sea-faring,  I  could  only  guess  at  it ;  for  such 
of  them  as  had  come  into  this  death-haven  with 
any  of  their  top-hamper  still  standing,  as  some  of 
them  no  doubt  had  come,  long  since  had  lost  it — 
first  the  standing-rigging  and  later  the  masts  rot 
ting,  and  so  all  together  falling  in  a  heap  anyway 
upon  the  decks  or  over  the  side.  And  such  a  com 
pany  of  withered  old  sea-corpses  as  these  ancient 
wrecks  made  there,  all  huddled  together  with  the 
weed  thick  about  them,  was  as  hopeless  and  as 
dismal  a  sight  as  ever  was  seen  by  the  eyes  of  man. 
But  a  matter  that  to  me  was  m6re  instantly  dis 
mal,  as  I  pressed  on  among  them,  came  when  I 
found  that  I  was  getting  so  close  to  the  end  of  my 
stock  of  provisions — while  yet  apparently  no  nearer 
to  the  end  of  my  journey — that  there  was  no  shirk 
ing  the  necessity  of  returning  to  the  distant  barque 
for  a  fresh  supply :  a  journey  involving  such  des- 

179 


IN    THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

perate  toil,  and  so  much  of  it,  that  the  mere  thought 
of  it  sent  aches  through  all  my  bones. 

It  was  about  noon  one  day,  while  I  was  trying 
to  nerve  myself  to  make  this  hard  expedition,  that 
I  called  a  halt  in  order  to  eat  my  dinner— which  I 
knew  would  be  a  very  little  one — being  just  then 
come  aboard  of  a  great  ungainly  galleon  that  from 
the  look  of  her  I  thought  could  not  be  less  than 
two  centuries  and  a  half  old :  she  being  more  cu 
riously  ancient  in  her  build  than  any  vessel  that  I 
had  got  upon,  and  her  timbers  so  rotten  that  I  had 
ticklish  climbing  as  I  worked  my  way  up  her  high 
quarter — and,  indeed,  one  of  her  galleries  giving 
way  under  me,  was  near  to  spilling  down  her  tall 
side  to  my  death  berieath  the  tangled  weed.  And 
when  at  last  I  got  to  her  deck  I  found  it  so  soft, 
partly  with  rottenness  and  partly  with  a  sort  of 
moss  growing  over  it,  that  I  was  fearful  at  each 
step  that  it  would  give  way  under  me  and  let  me 
down  with  a  crash  into  her  hold. 

I  would  have  been  glad  of  a  better  place  to  eat 
my  dinner  in — she  being  sodden  wet  everywhere, 
and  with  a  chill  about  her  for  all  the  warmth  of 
the  misty  air  shimmering  with  dull  sunshine,  and 
with  a  rank  unwholesome  smell  rising  from  her 
rotting  mass.  But  all  the  hulks  thereabouts  were 
in  so  much  the  same  condition  that  by  going  on  I 
was  not  likely  greatly  to  better  myself ;  and  I  was 
so  tired  and  so  hungry  that  I  had  no  heart  to 

180 


ABOARD   A  SPANISH  GALLEON 

attempt  any  more  hard  scrambling  until  I  had  had 
both  rest  and  food.  And  so  I  hunted  out  a  spot 
on  her  deck  where  the  moss  was  thinnest  and  least 
oozy  with  moisture — being  a  place  a  little  sheltered 
by  a  sort  of  porch  above  her  cabin  doorway — and 
there  I  seated  myself  and  with  a  good  deal  of  sat 
isfaction  fell  to  upon  my  very  scanty  ration  of 
beans. 

For  a  while  I  was  busied  wholly  with  my  eating, 
being  mighty  sharp  set  after  my  morning's  walk ; 
but  when  my  short  meal  was  ended  I  began  to  look 
about  me,  and  especially  to  peer  into  the  deep  old 
cabin — that  was  pretty  well  lighted  through  the 
stern -windows  and  through  the  doorway  at  my 
shoulder,  of  which  the  door  had  rotted  away. 

From  Avhere  I  was  seated  I  could  see  nearly  the 
whole  of  it ;  and  what  I  first  noted  was  that  a  little 
hatch  in  the  middle  of  the  floor  was  open,  and 
that  dangling  down  into  it  from  one  of  the  roof- 
beams  wras  a  double-purchase — as  though  an  at 
tempt  to  haul  up  some  heavy  thing  from  that  place 
had  come  to  a  short  end.  For  the  rest,  there  was 
little  to  see :  only  a  clumsy  table  set  fast  between 
fixed  benches  close  under  the  stern  windows  ;  a 
locker  in  which  I  found,  when  I  looked  into  it,  a 
sodden  thing  that  very  likely  had  been  the  ship's 
log-book  along  with  a  queer  old  Jacob's  staff  (as 
they  were  called)  such  as  mariners  took  their  ob 
servations  with  before  quadrants  were  known ;  and 

181 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

against  the  wall  were  hanging  a  couple  of  long  old 
rusty  swords  and  a  rusty  thing  that  I  took  at  first 
to  be  a  wash-basin,  but  made  out  was  a  deep-curved 
breast- plate  that  must  have  belonged  to  a  very 
round-bellied  little  man. 

The  floor  of  the  cabin,  as  I  found  when  I  went 
in  there,  was  so  firm  and  solid — being  laid  in  teak, 
very  likely,  and  having  been  sheltered  by  the  roof 
over  it  from  the  rains — that  I  had  no  fear,  as  I  had 
on  the  open  deck,  that  the  planks  would  give  way 
under  me  and  let  me  through.  And  when  I  was 
come  inside  I  found  resting  on  a  wooden  rack  set 
against  the  front  wall  a  couple  of  old  bell-mouthed 
brass  fire-locks,  coated  thick  with  verdigris,  and 
with  them  three  smaller  bell-mouthed  pieces  which 
were  neither  guns  nor  pistols  but  something  be 
tween  the  two.  As  for  the  log-book,  if  it  were  the 
log-book,  I  could  make  nothing  of  it.  It  was  so 
soaked  and  swelled  by  the  dampness,  and  so  rotten, 
that  my  fingers  sank  into  it  when  I  tried  to  pick 
it  up  as  they  would  have  sunk  into  porridge ;  and 
the  slimy  stuff  left  a  horrid  smell  upon  my  hand. 
Therefore  I  cannot  tell  what  was  the  name  of  this 
old  ship,  nor  to  what  country  she  belonged,  nor 
whither  she  was  sailing  on  her  last  voyage ;  but 
that  she  was  Spanish — or  perhaps  Portuguese — 
and  was  wrecked  while  on  her  way  homeward  from 
some  port  in  the  Indies,  I  do  not  doubt  at  all. 

When  I  had  made  my  round  of  the  cabin,  find- 
182 


ABOARD  A   SPANISH   GALLEON 

ing  so  little,  I  came  to  the  open  hatch  in  the  middle 
of  it  and  gazed  down  into  the  dusky  depth  cu 
riously  :  wondering  a  good  deal  that  in  what  must 
have  been  almost  the  moment  when  death  was  set 
ting  its  clutch  upon  the  galleon,  and  when  all 
aboard  of  her  assuredly  were  in  peril  of  their  lives, 
her  people  should  have  tried  to  rouse  out  a  part  of 
her  cargo — as  I  had  proof  that  they  had  tried  to 
do  in  the  tackle  still  hanging  there  from  the  beam. 
And  the  only  reasonable  way  to  account  for  this 
strange  endeavor,  it  seemed  to  me — since  provi 
sions  were  not  likely  to  be  carried  in  that  part  of 
the  vessel  —  was  that  something  so  precious  was 
down  there  in  the  blackness  as  to  make  the  risk 
of  death  worth  taking  in  order  to  try  to  save  it 
from  the  sea. 

With  that  there  came  over  me  an  itching  curios 
ity  to  find  out  what  the  treasure  was  which  the 
crew  of  the  galleon — in  such  stress  of  some  sort 
that  they  had  been  forced  to  give  up  the  job  sud 
denly — had  tried  to  get  out  of  their  ship  and  carry 
off  with  them ;  and  along  with  my  curiosity  came 
an  eager  pounding  of  my  heart  as  I  thought  to 
myself — without  ever  stopping  to  think  also  how 
useless  riches  of  any  sort  were  to  me — that  by  right 
of  discovery  their  treasure,  whatever  it  might  be, 
had  become  mine. 

With  my  breath  coming  and  going  quickly,  I 
got  down  upon  my  hands  and  knees  and  stooped 

183 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

my  head  well  into  the  opening  that  I  might  get 
rid  of  the  light  in  my  eyes  from  the  cabin  win 
dows  ;  and  being  that  way  I  made  out  dimly  that 
the  lower  block  of  the  purchase  was  whipped  fast 
to  a  little  wooden  box,  and  that  other  small  boxes 
were  stowed  in  regular  tiers  under  it  so  that  they 
filled  snugly  a  little  chamber  about  a  dozen  feet 
square.  That  there  were  several  layers  of  these 
boxes  seemed  probable,  for  those  in  sight  were  only 
six  feet  or  so  below  the  level  of  the  cabin  floor, 
and  that  they  held  either  gold  or  silver  I  considered 
to  be  beyond  a  doubt ;  and  as  I  raised  my  head  up 
out  of  the  hatch,  my  eyes  blinking  as  the  light 
struck  them,  and  thought  of  the  wealth  that  must 
be  stored  there  in  that  little  chamber,  and  that  it 
was  mine  because  I  had  found  it,  I  gave  a  long 
great  sigh. 

For  a  minute  or  two  I  was  quite  dazed  by  my 
discovery  ;  and  then  as  I  got  steadier — or  got  cra 
zier,  perhaps  I  ought  to  say — nothing  would  serve 
me  but  that  I  must  get  down  to  where  my  treasure 
was,  so  that  my  eyes  might  see  it  and  that  I  might 
touch  it  with  my  hands.  And  with  that  I  caught 
at  the  tackle  and  gave  a  tug  on  the  ropes  to  test 
them,  and  as  they  held  I  swung  to  them  to  slide 
down — and  the  moment  that  my  full  weight  was 
on  them  they  snapped  like  punk,  and  down  I  went 
feet  foremost  and  struck  on  the  tiers  of  boxes  with 
a  bang.  As  I  fell  only  a  little  way,  and  upon  a 

184 


ABOARD   A  SPANISH   GALLEON 

level  surface— for  I  went  clear  of  the  box  to  which 
the  tackle  was  made  fast — no  harm  came  to  me ; 
but  under  my  feet  I  felt  the  rotten  wood  going 
squashily,  and  then  beneath  it  something  firm  and 
hard.  And  when  I  got  back  my  balance  and  looked 
down  eagerly  my  eyes  caught  a  dull  gleam  in  the 
semi-darkness,  and  then  made  out  beneath  my  feet 
a  mass  of  yellow  ingots :  and  I  gave  a  great  shout — 
that  seemed  to  be  forced  out  of  me  to  keep  my 
heart  from  bursting — for  I  knew  that  I  was  stand 
ing  on  bars  of  gold ! 


XXV 

I    AM   THE   MASTER    OF    A    GREAT    TREASURE 

FOR  a  while,  down  in  that  black  little  place,  I 
was  quite  a  crazy  creature ;  being  so  stirred  by  my 
finding  this  great  store  of  riches  that  I  went  to 
dancing  and  singing  there  —  and  was  not  a  bit 
bothered  by  the  vile  stench  rising  from  the  rotten 
wood  that  my  feet  sent  flying,  nor  by  the  still 
viler  stench  rising  from  the  reeking  mass  of  rot 
tenness  below  me  in  the  galleon's  hold. 

And  then,  that  I  might  see  my  treasure  the  more 
clearly,  I  fell  to  tossing  the  ingots  up  through  the 
hatch  into  the  cabin — where  I  could  have  a  good 
light  upon  them,  and  could  gloat  upon  the  yellow 
gleam  of  them,  and  could  make  some  sort  of  a 
guess  at  how  much  each  of  them  represented  in 
golden  coin.  From  that  I  went  on  to  calculating 
how  much  the  whole  of  them  were  worth  together; 
and  when  I  got  to  the  end  of  my  figuring  I  fairly 
wras  dazed. 

In  a  rough  way  I  estimated  that  each  ingot 
weighed  at  least  five  pounds,  and  as  each  of  the 
little  boxes  contained  ten  of  them  the  value  of 

186 


I   AM  THE   MASTER   OF  TREASURE 

every  single  box  stored  there  was  not  less  than 
fifteen  thousand  dollars.  As  well  as  I  could  make 
out,  the  boxes  were  in  rows  of  ten  and  there  were 
ten  rows  of  them— which  gave  over  a  million  and 
a  half  of  dollars  for  the  top  tier  alone ;  and  as  there 
certainly  was  an  under-tier  the  value  of  my  treas 
ure  at  the  least  was  three  millions.  But  actually, 
as  I  found  by  digging  down  through  the  ingots 
until  I  came  to  the  solid  flooring,  there  were  in  all 
five  tiers  of  boxes ;  and  what  made  the  whole  of 
them  worth  close  upon  eight  millions  of  our  Amer 
ican  money,  or  well  on  toward  two  millions  of 
English  pounds.  My  brain  reeled  as  I  thought 
about  it.  The  treasure  that  I  had  possession  of 
was  a  fortune  fit  for  a  king ! 

I  had  swung  myself  up  from  the  little  chamber 
and  was  standing  in  the  cabin  while  I  made  these 
calculations,  and  when  at  last  I  got  to  my  sum 
total  I  felt  so  light-headed  that  it  seemed  as  though 
I  were  walking  on  air.  Indeed,  I  fairly  was  stunned 
by  my  tremendous  good  fortune  and  could  not 
think  clearly :  and  it  was  because  my  mind  thus 
was  turned  all  topsy-turvy,  I  suppose,  that  the 
odd  thought  popped  into  it  that  in  the  matter  of 
weight  my  gold  ingots  were  pretty  much  the  same 
as  the  tins  of  beans  to  get  which  I  was  about  to 
return  to  the  barque — a  foolish  notion  which  so 
tickled  my  fancy  that  I  burst  out  into  a  loud  laugh. 

The  jarring  sound  of  my  laughter,  which  rang 
187 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

out  with  a  ghastly  impropriety  in  that  deathly 
place,  brought  me  to  my  senses  a  little  and  made 
me  calmer.  But  my  mind  ran  on  for  a  moment 
or  so  upon  the  odd  notion  that  had  provoked  it, 
and  in  that  time  certain  other  thoughts  flashed 
into  my  head  which  had  only  to  get  there  to  spill 
out  of  me  every  bit  of  my  crazy  joy.  For  first  I 
realized  that  since  I  could  carry  only  the  same 
weight  of  gold  that  I  could  carry  of  food  my  act 
ual  wealth  was  but  a  single  back -load,  which 
brought  my  millions  down  to  a  few  beggarly 
thousands ;  and  on  top  of  that  I  realized — and  this 
came  like  a  douse  of  ice -water  —  that  for  every 
ingot  that  I  carried  away  with  me  I  must  leave  a 
like  weight  of  food  behind :  which  meant  neither 
more  nor  less  than  that  my  great  treasure,  for  all 
the  good  that  ever  it  would  be  to  me — so  little 
could  I  venture  to  take  of  it  on  these  terms — might 
as  well  be  already  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

And  then,  being  utterly  dispirited  and  broken, 
I  fell  to  thinking  how  little  difference  it  made  one 
way  or  the  other — how  even  a  single  ingot  would 
be  a  vain  lading— since  I  had  no  ground  for  hoping 
that  ever  again  would  I  get  to  a  region  where  I 
would  have  use  for  gold.  And  with  that — .though 
I  kept  on  staring  in  a  dull  way  at  the  ingots  scat 
tered  over  the  floor  of  the  cabin — I  thought  of  the 
treasure  no  longer:  my  heart  being  filled  with  a 
great  sorrowing  pity  for  myself,  because  of  the 

188 


I   AM   THE   MASTER   OF   TREASURE 

doom  upon  me  to  live  out  whatever  life  might  be 
left  me  in  the  most  torrid  solitude  into  which  ever 
a  man  was  cast. 

For  a  long  while  I  stood  despairing  there ;  and 
then  at  last  the  hope  of  life  began  to  rise  in  me 
again — as  it  always  must  rise,  no  matter  how  des 
perate  are  the  odds  against  it,  in  the  mind  of  a 
sound  and  vigorous  man.  And  with  this  saner 
feeling  came  again  my  desire  to  push  on  in  the 
direction  that  offered  me  a  chance  of  deliverance — 
leaving  all  my  treasure  behind  me,  since  it  was 
worth  less  to  me  than  food ;  and  presently  came 
the  farther  hope  that  AY  hen  I  had  succeeded  in 
finding  a  way  out  of  my  sea -prison,  and  so  was 
sure  of  my  life  once  more,  I  might  be  able  to  re 
turn  to  the  galleon  and  take  away  Avith  me  at  least 
some  portion  of  the  great  riches  that  I  had  found. 

Because  of  this  foolish  hope,  and  the  very  human 
comfort  that  I  found  in  knowing  myself  to  be  the 
possessor  of  such  prodigious  wealth,  I  needs  must 
jump  down  again  to  where  it  wras  and  take  another 
survey  of  it  before  I  left  it  behind.  And  then, 
being  cooler  and  looking  more  carefully,  I  noticed 
that  the  box  to  which  the  tackle  had  been  made 
fast  was  not  like  the  other  boxes — though  about 
the  same  size  with  them — but  was  a  little  coffer 
that  seemed  once  to  have  been  locked  and  that 
still  had  around  it  the  rusty  remnants  of  iron  bands. 
This  difference  in  the  make  of  it  put  into  my  head 

189 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

the  notion  that  its  contents  were  more  precious 
than  the  contents  of  the  other  boxes — though  how 
that  could  be  I  did  not  well  see ;  and  my  notion 
seemed  the  more  reasonable  as  I  reflected  that  if 
the  coffer  really  were  of  an  extraordinary  value 
there  would  have  been  sense  in  trying  to  save  it 
even  in  a  time  of  great  peril — which  was  more  than 
could  be  said  of  trying  to  load  down  boats  launched 
in  the  midst  of  some  final  disaster  with  any  of 
those  heavy  boxes  of  gold. 

My  mind  became  excited  by  another  mirage  of 
riches  as  these  thoughts  went  through  it,  and  to 
settle  the  matter  I  stooped  down  and  got  a  grip 
on  the  coffer — which  was  made  of  a  tougher  wood 
than  the  boxes  and  held  together — and  managed 
by  a  good  deal  of  straining  to  lift  it  up  through 
the  hatch  into  the  cabin,  where  I  could  examine  it 
at  my  ease. 

When  it  was  new  an  axe  would  not  have  made 
much  impression  upon  it,  so  strongly  had  it  been 
put  together ;  but  there  were  left  only  black  stains 
to  show  where  the  iron  had  bound  it,  and  the  wood 
had  rotted  until  it  was  softer  than  the  softest  bit 
of  pine.  Indeed,  I  had  only  to  give  a  little  jerk 
to  the  lid  to  open  it :  both  the  lock  and  the  hinges 
being  gone  with  rust,  and  the  lid  held  in  place  only 
by  a  sort  of  sticky  slime. 

But  when  I  did  get  it  open  the  first  thing  that 
came  out  of  it  was  a  stench  so  vile  that  I  had  to 

190 


I  AM  THE   MASTER   OF  TREASURE 

jump  up  in  a  hurry  and  rush  to  the  open  deck  until 
the  worst  of  it  had  ebbed  away ;  and  this  exceed 
ing  evil  odor  was  given  off  by  a  slimy  ooze  of 
rotted  leather — as  I  knew  a  little  later  by  finding 
still  unmelted  some  bits  of  small  leather  bags  in 
which  what  was  stored  there  had  been  tied.  But 
even  as  I  jumped  up  and  left  the  cabin  my  eyes 
caught  a  gleam  of  brightness  in  the  horrid  slimy 
mess  that  set  my  heart  to  beating  hard  again  ;  and 
it  pounded  away  in  my  breast  still  harder  when  I 
came  back  and  made  out  clearly  what  I  had  found. 
For  there  in  the  rotten  ooze,  strewn  thickly,  was 
such  a  collection  of  glittering  jewels  that  my  eyes 
fairly  were  dazzled  by  them  ;  and  when  I  had 
turned  the  coffer  upside  down  on  the  deck  so  that 
the  slime  flowed  away  stickily — giving  off  the  most 
dreadful  stench  that  ever  I  have  encountered  —  I 
saw  a  heap  of  precious  stones  such  as  for  size  and 
beauty  has  not  been  gathered  into  one  place,  I 
suppose — unless  it  may  have  been  in  the  treasury 
of  some  Eastern  sovereign — since  the  very  begin 
ning  of  the  world.  At  a  single  glance  I  knew  that 
the  great  treasure  of  gold,  which  had  seemed  to 
me  overwhelming  because  of  its  immensity,  was 
as  nothing  in  comparison  with  this  other  treasure 
wherein  riches  were  so  concentrate  and  sublimate 
that  I  had  the  very  essence  of  them :  and  I  reeled 
and  trembled  again  as  I  hugged  the  thought  to  me 
that  by  my  finding  of  it  I  was  made  master  of  it  all. 

191 


XXVI 

OF    A   STRANGE    SIGHT  THAT   I    SAW   IN   THE    NIGHT-TIME 

I  WAS  pretty  much  mooning  mad  for  a  while,  I 
suppose:  sometimes  walking  about  the  cabin  and 
thrusting  with  my  feet  contemptuously  at  the  gold 
ingots  strewn  over  the  floor  of  it,  and  sometimes 
standing  still  in  a  sort  of  rapt  wonder  over  my  heap 
of  jewels — and  anything  like  sensible  thinking  was 
quite  beyond  the  power  of  my  unbalanced  mind. 
But  at  last  I  was  aroused,  and  so  brought  to  my 
self  a  little,  by  the  daylight  waning  suddemV :  as 
it  did  in  that  region  when  the  sun  dropped  down 
into  the  thick  layer  of  mist  lying  close  upon  the 
water — making  at  first  a  strange  purplish  dusk, 
and  then  a  rich  crimson  after-glow  that  deepened 
into  purple  again,  and  so  turning  slowly  into  black 
ness  as  night  came  on. 

When  I  had  come  aboard  the  galleon,  about 
noon-time,  and  had  found  her  so  sodden  with  wet 
and  so  reeking  with  foul  odors — as,  indeed,  were 
all  of  the  very  ancient  ships  which  made  the  mid- 
part  of  that  sea  graveyard — I  had  made  my  mind 
up  to  a  forced  march  in  the  afternoon  that  I  hoped 

192 


STRANGE  SIGHT  IN   THE   NIGHT-TIME 

would  carry  me  through  the  worst  of  all  that  rot 
tenness,  and  so  to  a  ship  partly  dry  and  less  ill- 
smelling  for  the  night.  But  when  I  came  out  from 
the  cabin  and  looked  about  me,  and  sa\v  how 
thick  and  black  were  the  shadows  in  the  clefts 
between  the  wrecks,  I  knew  that  I  could  not  vent 
ure  onward,  but  must  pass  the  night  where  I 
was.  And  this  was  a  prospect  not  at  all  to  my 
mind. 

The  cabin,  of  course,  was  the  only  place  for  me, 
the  soaked  deck  with  the  soaked  moss  on  top  of  it 
being  quite  out  of  the  question  ;  but  even  the  cabin 
was  not  fit  for  a  dog  to  lie  in,  so  chill  and  damp 
was  it  and  so  foul  with  the  stench  rising  and  spread 
ing  from  the  slime  of  rotted  leather  that  I  had 
emptied  from  the  coffer  and  that  made  a  little  vile 
pool  upon  the  floor.  And  through  the  open  hatch 
there  came  up  a  dismal  heavy  odor  of  all  the  rotten 
stuff  down  there  that  almost  turned  my  stomach, 
and  that  made  the  air  laden  with  it  hard  to  breathe 
— though  in  my  hot  excitement  I  had  not  noticed 
it  at  all.  But  this  last  I  got  the  better  of  in  part 
by  covering  again  the  opening,  though  I  had  to 
move  the  hatch  very  gently  and  carefully  to  keep 
it  from  falling  into  rotten  fragments  in  my  hands. 
Yet  because  it  was  so  dense  with  moisture,  when 
I  did  get  it  set  in  place,  it  pretty  well  kept  the 
stench  down.  And  then  I  kicked  away  some  of 
the  ingots  into  a  corner,  and  so  cleared  a  space  on 
N  193 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

the  floor  where  I  could  stretch  myself  just  within 
the  cabin  door. 

These  matters  being  attended  to,  I  seated  myself 
in  the  same  place  where  I  had  eaten  my  dinner — 
just  outside  the  door,  under  the  little  sort  of  porch 
overhanging  it — and  ate  the  short  ration  that  I  al 
lowed  myself  for  my  supper,  and  found  it  very 
much  less  than  my  lively  hunger  required.  When 
I  had  finished  I  sat  on  there  for  a  good  while  longer, 
being  very  loath  to  go  into  the  cabin ;  but  at  last, 
by  finding  myself  nodding  with  weary  drowsiness, 
I  knew  that  sleep  would  come  quickly,  and  so  went 
inside  and  laid  myself  down  upon  the  floor.  There 
still  was  a  faint  glimmer  of  dying  daylight  out 
side,  and  this  little  glow  somehow  comforted  me 
as  I  lay  there  facing  the  doorway  and  blinking  now 
and  then  before  my  eyes  were  tight  closed  ;  but  I 
did  not  lie  long  that  way  half -waking,  being  so 
utterly  fagged  in  both  mind  and  body  that  I  dropped 
off  into  deep  slumber  before  the  darkness  fell. 

I  suppose  that  even  in  my  sleep  I  had  an  uneasy 
sense  of  my  bleak  surroundings ;  and  that  this,  in 
the  course  of  three  or  four  hours — by  which  time 
I  was  a  good  deal  rested  and  so  slept  less  soundly- 
got  the  better  of  my  weariness  and  roused  me 
awake  again.  But  when  I  first  woke  I  was  sure 
that  I  had  slept  the  night  through  and  that  early 
morning  was  come — for  there  was  so  much  light 
in  the  cabin  that  I  never  thought  to  account  for 

194 


STRANGE   SIGHT  IN  THE  NIGHT-TIME 

it  save  by  the  return  of  clay.  Yet  the  light  was 
not  like  daylight,  as  I  realized  when  I  had  a  little 
more  shaken  off  my  sleepiness,  being  curiously 
white  and  soft. 

I  turned  over— for  I  had  rolled  in  my  uneasy 
sleep  and  got  my  back  toward  the  doorway — and 
raised  myself  a  little  on  my  elbow  so  that  I  might 
see  out  clearly ;  and  what  I  saw  was  so  unearthly 
strange,  and  in  a  way  so  awe-compelling,  that  in 
another  moment  I  was  on  my  feet  and  staring  with 
all  my  eyes.  Over  the  whole  deck  of  the  galleon 
a  soft  lambent  light  was  playing,  and  this  went 
along  her  bulwarks  and  up  over  her  high  fore-castle 
so  that  all  the  lines  of  her  structure  were  defined 
sharply  by  it ;  and  pale  through  the  mist  against 
the  blackness,  out  over  her  low  waist,  I  could  catch 
glimpses  of  the  other  tall  old  ships  lying  near  her 
all  likewise  shining  everywhere  with  the  same  soft 
flames  —  which  yet  were  not  flames  exactly,  but 
rather  a  flickering  glow. 

In  a  moment  or  so  I  realized  that  this  luminous 
wonder,  which  at  the  first  look  had  so  strong  a 
touch  of  the  supernatural  in  it,  was'  no  more  than 
the  manifestation  of  a  natural  phenomenon  :  being 
the  shimmer  of  phosphorescent  light  upon  the  soak 
ing  rotten  woodwork  of  the  galleon  and  of  the  ships 
about  her,  as  rotten  and  as  old.  But  making  this 
explanation  to  myself  did  not  lessen  the  frighten 
ing  strangeness  of  the  spectacle,  nor  do  much  to 

195 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

stop  the  cold  creeps  which  ran  over  me  as  I  looked 
at  it :  I  being  there  solitary  in  that  marvellous 
brightness — that  I  knew  was  in  a  way  a  death- 
glow — the  one  thing  alive. 

But  presently  my  unreasoning  shivering  dread 
began  to  yield  a  little,  as  my  curiosity  bred  in  me 
an  eager  desire  to  see  the  whole  of  this  wondrous 
soft  splendor ;  for  I  made  sure  from  my  glimpses 
over  the  galleon's  bulwarks  that  it  was  about  me 
on  every  side.  And  so  I  stepped  out  from  the 
cabin  upon  the  deck,  where  my  feet  sank  into  the 
short  mossy  growth  that  coated  the  rotten  planks 
and  I  was  fairly  walking  in  what  seemed  like  a 
lake  of  wavering  pale  flame ;  and  from  there,  that 
I  might  see  the  better,  I  climbed  cautiously  up  the 
rotten  stair  leading  to  the  roof  of  the  cabin,  and 
thence  to  the  little  over-topping  gallery  where  the 
stern-lantern  was.  And  from  that  height  I  could 
gaze  about  me  as  far  as  ever  the  mist  would  let 
me  see. 

Everywhere  within  the  circle  that  my  eyes  cov 
ered —  which  was  not  a  very  big  one,  for  in  the 
night  the  mist  was  thick  and  low-lying  —  the  old 
wrecks  wedged  together  there  were  lighted  with 
the  same  lambent  flames:  which  came  and  went 
over  their  dead  carcasses  as  though  they  all  sud 
denly  were  lighted  and  then  as  suddenly  were  put 
out  again  ;  and  farther  away  the  glow  of  them  in 
the  mist  was  like  a  silvery  shimmering  haze. 

196 


STRANGE    SIGHT  IN  THE    NIGHT-TIME 

By  this  ebbing  and  flowing  light — which  seemed 
to  me,  for  all  that  I  knew  the  natural  cause  of  it, 
so  outside  of  nature  that  I  thrilled  with  a  creeping 
fear  as  I  looked  at  it — I  could  see  clearly  the  shapes 
of  the  strange  ancient  ships  around  me  :  their  great 
poops  and  fore-castles  rising  high  above  their  shal 
low7  waists,  and  here  and  there  among  them  the 
remnant  of  a  mast  making  a  line  of  light  rising 
higher  still  — like  a  huge  corpse-candle  shining 
against  the  blackness  beyond.  And  the  ruin  of 
them — the  breaks  in  their  lines,  and  the  black  gaps 
where  bits  of  their  frames  had  rotted  away  com 
pletely — gave  to  them  all  a  ghastly  death-like  look ; 
while  their  wild  tangling  together  made  strange 
ragged  lines  of  brightness  wavering  under  the  veil 
of  mist,  as  though  a  desolate  sea-city  were  lying 
there  dead  before  me  lit  up  with  lanterns  of  despair. 

Yet  that  which  most  keenly  thrilled  me  with  a 
cold  dread  was  my  strong  conviction  that  I  could 
see  living  men  moving  hither  and  thither  over 
those  pale-lit  decks,  where  my  reason  told  me  that 
only  ancient  death  could  be;  for  the  play  of  the 
flickering  light  made  such  a  commotion  of  fleeting 
flames  and  dancing  shadows,  going  and  coming  in 
all  manner  of  fantastic  shapes,  that  every  shattered 
hulk  around  me  seemed  to  have  her  old  crew  alive 
and  on  board  of  her  again — all  hurrying  in  bus 
tling  crowds  fore  and  aft,  and  up  and  down  the 
heights  of  her,  as  though  under  orderly  command. 

197 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

And  at  times  these  shapes  were  so  real  and  so  dis 
tinct  to  me  that  I  was  for  crying  out  to  them — and 
would  check  myself  suddenly,  shivering  with  a 
fright  which  I  knew  was  out  of  all  reason  but 
which  for  the  life  of  me  I  could  not  keep  down. 

And  so  the  night  wore  away :  while  I  stood 
there  on  the  galleon's  poop  with  the  soft  pale 
flames  flickering  around  me  in  the  mist,  and  my 
fears  rising  and  falling  as  I  lost  and  regained  con 
trol  of  myself ;  and  I  think  that  it  is  a  wonder  that 
I  did  not  go  mad. 


XXVII 

I  SET  MYSELF  TO  A  HEAVY  TASK 

AT  last,  after  what  seemed  to  me  an  age  of  wait 
ing  for  it,  a  little  pinkish  tone  began  to  glow  in 
the  mist  to  the  eastward ;  and  as  that  honest  light 
got  stronger  the  death-fires  on  the  old  galleon  and 
on  the  wrecks  around  her  paled  quickly  until  they 
were  snuffed  out  altogether — and  then  came  the 
customary  morning  down-pour  of  rain. 

With  the  return  of  the  blessed  daylight,  and  with 
the  enlivening  douse  of  cool  fresh  water  upon  me, 
I  got  to  be  myself  again  :  my  fanciful  fears  of  the 
night-time  leaving  me,  and  my  mind  coming  back 
soberly  to  a  consideration  of  my  actual  needs.  Of 
these  the  most  pressing,  as  my  stomach  told  me, 
was  to  get  my  breakfast ;  and  when  that  matter, 
in  a  very  poor  way,  had  been  attended  to,  and  I 
had  drunk  what  water  I  needed  —  without  much 
relishing  it — from  a  pool  that  had  formed  on  the 
deck  where  the  timbers  sagged  down  a  little,  I 
was  in  better  heart  to  lay  out  for  myself  a  plan  of 
campaign. 

In  one  way  planning  was  not  necessary.  By 
199 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

holding  to  a  northerly  course  I  believed  that  I  had 
got  at  least  half  way  across  ray  continent,  and  my 
determination  was  fixed  to  keep  on  by  the  north — 
rather  than  risk  a  fresh  departure  that  might  only 
carry  me  by  a  fresh  way  again  into  the  depths  of 
the  tangle — until  I  should  come  once  more  to  the 
open  sea :  if  I  may  call  open  sea  that  far  outlying- 
expanse  of  ocean  covered  with  thick-grown  weed. 
But  it  was  needful  that  I  should  plan  for  my  sup 
ply  of  food  as  I  went  onward,  that  was  to  be  got 
only  by  returning  to  the  far-away  barque ;  and 
also  I  felt  an  itching  desire — as  strong  as  at  first 
blush  it  was  unreasonable — to  carry  away  with  me 
some  part  of  the  treasure  that  I  had  found.  That 
I  ever  should  get  out  into  the  world  again,  and  so 
have  the  good  of  my  riches,  seemed  likely  to  me 
only  in  my  most  sanguine  moments  ;  but  even  on 
the  slimmest  chance  of  accomplishing  my  own  de 
liverance  I  had  a  very  natural  human  objection  to 
leaving  behind  me  the  wealth  that  I  had  found 
through  such  peril— only  to  lie  there  for  a  while 
longer  idly,  and  then  to  be  lost  forever  when  the 
galleon  sank  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

As  to  the  gold,  it  was  plain  that  I  could  carry 
off  so  little  of  it  that  I  might  as  well  resign  my 
self — having  that  which  was  better  worth  working 
for — to  losing  it  all.  But  my  treasure  of  jewels 
was  another  matter.  This  was  so  very  much  more 
valuable  than  the  gold — for  the  stones  for  the  most 

200 


I   SET   MYSELF    TO   A   HEAVY  TASK 

part  were  of  a  prodigious  size  and  a  rare  fineness — 
that  between  the  two  there  really  was  no  compari 
son  ;  and  at  the  same  time  it  was  so  compact  in 
bulk  and  so  petty  in  weight  that  I  might  easily 
carry  the  whole  of  it  with  me  and  a  good  store  of 
food  too.  And  so,  to  make  a  beginning,  I  picked 
the  stones  out  of  the  slimy  and  stinking  ooze  in 
which  they  were  lying  and  washed  them  clean  in 
the  pool  of  water  on  the  deck ;  and  then  I  packed 
them  snugly  into  the  shirt-sleeve  in  which  my  beans 
had  been  stored — and  tickled  m37self  the  while  with 
the  fancy  that  most  men  would  be  willing  for  the 
sake  of  stuffing  a  shirt-sleeve  that  way  to  cut  off 
the  arm  to  which  it  belonged. 

My  packing  being  finished,  and  my  precious  bag 
laid  away  in  a  corner  of  the  cabin  until  I  should 
come  to  fetch  it  again,  I  was  in  a  better  mood  for 
facing  my  long  march  back  to  the  barque :  for  I 
had  come  to  have  fortune  as  well  as  life  to  work 
for,  and  those  two  strong  stimulants  to  endeavor 
working  together  gave  my  spirits  a  great  upward 
pull.  And,  fortunately,  my  cheerfulness  staid  by 
me  through  my  long  scrambling  struggle  backward 
along  my  blazed  path  ;  nor  was  it,  in  reality,  as 
hard  a  journey  as  I  had  expected  it  to  be — for  I 
had  but  a  light  load  of  food  to  carry,  barely  enough 
to  last  me  through,  and  the  marks  which  I  had  left 
upon  the  wrecks  in  passing  made  my  way  plain. 
And  so,  at  last,  I  got  back  to  the  barque  one  even- 

201 


IN   THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

ing  about  sunset,  and  had  almost  a  feeling  of  home 
coming  in  boarding  her  again  ;  and  I  was  thankful 
enough  to  be  able  to  eat  all  the  supper  I  wanted, 
and  then  to  lie  down  comfortably  in  her  clean  cabin 
and  to  rest  myself  in  sound  slumber  after  my  many 
restless  nights  on  rotten  old  ships  reeking  with  a 
chill  dampness  that  struck  into  my  very  bones. 

I  slept  soundly  and  woke  refreshed;  and  for 
that  I  was  thankful,  since  the  work  cut  out  for 
me—to  get  back  to  the  galleon  with  enough  pro 
visions  to  last  me  until  I  could  cross  the  rest  of 
the  wreck-pack—was  about  as  much  as  a  strong 
man  in  good  condition  could  do.  However,  I  had 
thought  of  something  that  would  make  this  hard 
job  less  difficult;  for  the  ease  with  which  I  had 
carried  a  part  of  my  food  in  long  narrow  bags, 
sausage -fashion — thereby  getting  rid  of  both  the 
weight  and  the  awkwardness  of  the  tins — had  put 
into  my  head  the  notion  of  carrying  in  that  way 
the  whole  of  my  fresh  supply,  and  so  carrying 
at  least  twice  as  much  of  it.  And  I  calculated— 
since  I  could  go  rapidly  along  my  blazed  path— 
that  by  cutting  myself  down  to  very  short  rations 
I  could  get  back  to  the  galleon  with  a  bigger  stock 
of  provisions  than  that  with  which  I  left  the  barque 
when  I  made  my  first  start  toward  the  north — and 
if  the  galleon  lay,  as  I  believed  that  she  did,  about  in 
the  centre  of  the  pack,  this  would  give  me  enough 
food  to  last  me  until  I  got  across  to  the  other  side. 

202 


I  SET   MYSELF   TO   A  HEAVY   TASK 

So  I  rummaged  out  some  more  of  the  linen  shirts 
that  I  had  found— taking  a  fresh  one  for  my  own 
wear  to  begin  with — and  set  myself  to  my  sausage- 
making  with  the  sleeves  of  them;  packing  each 
sleeve  with  beans  as  tight  as  I  could  ram  it,  and 
working  over  each  a  netting  of  light  line  that  I 
finished  off  with  loops  at  the  ends.  Ten  of  my 
big  sausages  I  made  into  a  bundle  to  be  carried  on 
my  shoulders  like  a  knapsack  ;  and  the  rest  I  ar 
ranged  to  swing  by  their  loops  from  a  rope  collar 
about  my  neck,  with  another  rope  run  through  the 
lower  loops  to  be  made  fast  about  my  waist  and 
so  hold  them  steady— and  this  arrangement,  as  I 
found  when  I  tried  it,  answered  very  well.  And 
finally,  that  I  might  carry  my  jewels  the  more  se 
curely,  I  cut  off  a  sleeve  from  the  oil-skin  jacket  to 
serve  for  an  outer  casing  for  them,  and  took  along 
also  some  of  the  light  line  to  net  over  the  bundle 
and  make  it  solid  and  strong ;  in  that  way  guard 
ing  against  the  chance  of  their  rubbing  a  hole  in 
their  linen  covering— by  which  I  might  have  lost 
them  all. 

I  Avorked  fast  over  my  packing,  and  got  it  all 
finished  and  was  ready  to  start  away  by  not  a 
great  while  after  sunrise;  yet  when  the  time  for 
my  start  came  I  hesitated  a  little,  so  darkly  uncer 
tain  seemed  the  issue  of  the  adventure  that  I  had 
in  hand.  Indeed,  the  whole  of  my  project  was  a 
wild  one,  such  as  no  man  not  fairly  driven  into  it 

203 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

would  have  entertained  at  all.  Its  one  certainty 
was  that  only  by  excessive  toil  could  I  even  hope 
to  carry  it  through.  All  else  was  doubtful:  for  I 
knew  not  how  distant  were  the  farther  bounds  of 
the  desolate  dead  region  into  which  I  was  bent 
upon  penetrating ;  nor  had  I  ground  for  believing 
— since  I  had  food  in  plenty  where  I  was — that  I 
would  gain  anything  by  traversing  it ;  and  back  of 
all  that  was  the  gloomy  chance  of  some  accident 
befalling  me  that  would  end  in  my  dying  miserably 
by  the  way.  While  I  was  busily  employed  in  mak 
ing  ready  for  my  march  I  had  grown  quite  cheer 
ful  ;  but  suddenly  my  little  crop  of  good  spirits 
withered  within  me,  and  when  at  last  I  did  go  for 
ward  it  was  with  a  very  heavy  heart. 


XXVIII 

HOW    I   RUBBED    SHOULDERS    WITH    DESPAIR 

COULD  I  have  foreseen  all  that  was  ahead  of  me  I 
doubt  if  I  should  have  had  the  courage  to  go  on  : 
choosing  rather  to  stay  there  on  the  barque  until  I 
had  eaten  what  food  I  had  by  me,  and  then  to  die 
slowly — and  finding  that  way  easier  than  the  one 
I  chose  to  follow,  with  its  many  days  of  struggle 
and  its  many  chill  nights  of  sorrow  and  I  through 
out  the  whole  of  it  rubbing  shoulders  with  despair. 

As  I  think  of  it  now,  that  long,  long  march 
seems  to  me  like  a  horrible  nightmare ;  and  some 
times  it  comes  back  to  me  as  a  real  nightmare  in 
my  dreams.  Again,  always  heavy  laden,  I  am 
climbing  and  scrambling  and  jumping,  endlessly 
and  hopelessly,  among  old  rotten  hulks;  each 
morning  trying  to  comfort  myself  with  the  belief 
that  by  night  I  may  see  some  sign  of  ships  less 
ancient,  and  so  know  that  I  am  winning  my  way 
a  little  toward  where  I  would  be;  and  each  night 
finding  myself  still  surrounded  by  tall  antique  craft 
such  as  have  not  for  two  centuries  and  more  held 
the  seas,  with  the  feeling  coming  down  crushingly 

205 


IN   THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

upon  me  that  I  have  not  advanced  at  all ;  and  even 
then  no  good  rest  for  me — as  I  lie  down  wearily  in 
some  foul-smelling  old  cabin,  chill  with  heavy  night- 
mist  and  with  the  reeking  damp  of  oozy  rotten  tim 
bers,  and  perhaps  find  in  it  for  my  sleeping-mates 
little  heaps  of  fungus  outgrowing  from  dead  men's 
bones.  And  the  mere  dream  of  all  this  so  bitterly 
hurts  me  that  I  wonder  how  I  ever  came  through 
the  reality  of  it  alive. 

At  the  start,  as  I  have  said,  I  had  calculated  that 
the  treasure-laden  galleon  lay  about  in  the  centre 
of  the  wreck-pack,  and  therefore  that  I  would  get 
across  from  her  to  the  other  side  of  the  pack  in 
about  the  same  time  that  I  had  taken  to  reach  her 
in  my  first  journey  from  the  barque ;  and  on  the 
basis  of  that  assumption,  when  I  was  come  to  her 
again,  I  shaped  my  course  hopefully  for  the  north. 
But  my  calculation,  though  on  its  face  a  reasona 
ble  enough  one,  proved  to  be  most  wofully  wrong : 
and  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion,  after  a  good 
deal  of  thinking  about  it,  that  this  was  because  the 
whole  vast  mass  of  wreckage  had  a  circular  mo 
tion — the  great  current  that  created  it  giving  at 
the  same  time  a  swirl  to  it — which  made  the  seem 
ingly  straight  line  that  I  followed  in  reality  a  con 
stantly  extended  curve.  But  whatever  the  cause 
may  have  been,  the  fact  remains  that  when  by  my 
calculation  I  should  have  been  on  the  outer  edge  of 
the  wreck-pack  I  still  was  wandering  in  its  depths. 

206 


I  RUB  SHOULDERS  WITH  DESPAIR 

In  one  way  my  march  was  easier  the  longer  that 
it  lasted,  my  load  growing  a  little  lighter  daily  as 
my  store  of  food  was  transferred  to  my  stomach 
from  my  back.  At  first  this  steady  decrease  of  my 
burden  was  a  comfort  to  me ;  but  after  a  while — 
when  more  than  half  of  it  was  gone,  and  I  still 
seemed  to  be  no  nearer  to  the  end  of  my  journey 
than  when  I  left  the  galleon — I  had  a  very  differ 
ent  feeling  about  it :  for  I  realized  that  unless  I 
came  speedily  to  ships  whereon  I  would  find  food— 
of  which  there  seemed  little  probability,  so  ancient 
were  the  craft  surrounding  me — I  either  must  go 
back  to  the  barque  and  wait  on  her  until  death 
came  to  me  slowly,  or  else  die  quickly  where  I 
was.  And  so  I  had  for  my  comforting  the  option 
of  a  tardy  death  or  a  speedy  one — with  the  cer 
tainty  of  the  latter  if  I  hesitated  long  in  choosing 
between  the  two. 

I  suppose  that  the  two  great  motive  powers  in 
the  world  are  hope  and  despair.  It  was  hope  that 
started  me  on  that  dismal  march,  but  if  despair  had 
not  at  last  come  in  to  help  me  I  never  should  have 
got  to  its  end :  for  I  took  Death  by  both  shoulders 
and  looked  straight  into  the  eyes  of  him  when  I 
decided,  having  by  me  only  food  for  three  days 
longer — and  at  that  but  as  little  as  would  keep  the 
life  in  me — to  give  over  all  thought  of  returning  to 
the  barque  and  to  make  a  dash  forward  as  fast  as 
I  could  go. 

207 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

I  had  little  enough  to  carry,  but  that  I  might 
have  still  less  I  left  my  hatchet  behind  me — hav 
ing,  indeed,  no  farther  use  for  it  since  if  my  dash 
miscarried  I  was  done  for  and  there  was  no  use  in 
marking  a  path  over  which  I  never  could  return ; 
and  I  was  half-minded  to  leave  my  bag  of  jewels 
behind  me  too.  But  in  the  end  I  decided  to  carry 
the  jewels  along  with  me — my  fancy  being  caught 
by  the  grim  notion  that  if  I  did  die  miserably  in 
that  vile  solitude  at  least  I  would  die  one  of  the  rich 
est  men  in  all  the  world.  As  to  my  water-bottles, 
one  of  them  I  had  thrown  away  when  I  found  that 
I  could  count  on  the  morning  showers  certainly, 
and  the  other  had  been  broken  in  one  of  my  many 
tumbles:  yet  without  much  troubling  me  —  as  I 
found  that  I  could  manage  fairly  well,  eating  but 
little,  if  I  filled  myself  pretty  full  of  water  at  the 
beginning  of  each  day.  And  so,  with  only  the 
bag  of  food  and  the  bag  of  jewels  upon  my  back, 
and  with  the  compass  on  top  of  them,  I  was 
ready  to  press  onward  to  try  conclusions  with 
despair. 

The  very  hopelessness  of  my  effort,  and  the  fact 
that  at  last  I  wras  dealing  with  what  in  one  way 
was  a  certainty — for  I  knew  that  if  my  plan  mis 
carried  I  had  only  a  very  little  wrhile  longer  to 
live — gave  me  a  sort  of  stolid  recklessness  which 
amazingly  helped  me :  stimulating  me  to  taking 
risks  in  climbing  which  before  I  should  have  shrunk 

208 


I   RUB   SHOULDERS   WITH  DESPAIR 

from,  and  so  getting  me  on  faster ;  and  at  the  same 
time  dulling  my  mind  to  the  dreads  besetting  it 
and  my  body  to  its  ceaseless  pains  begot  of  weari 
ness  and  thirst  and  scanty  food.  So  little,  indeed, 
did  I  care  Avhat  became  of  me  that  even  when  by 
the  middle  of  my  second  day's  march  I  saw  no 
change  in  my  surroundings  I  did  not  mind  it  much  : 
but,  to  be  sure,  at  the  outset  of  this  last  stage  of 
my  journey  I  had  thrown  hope  overboard,  and  a 
man  once  become  desperate  can  feel  no  farther 
ills. 

But  what  does  surprise  me — as  I  think  of  it  now, 
though  it  did  not  in  any  way  touch  me  then — was 
the  slowness  with  which,  when  there  was  reason 
for  it,  my  dead  hope  got  alive  again :  as  it  did,  and 
for  cause,  at  the  end  of  that  same  second, day — for 
by  the  evening  I  came  out,  with  a  sharp  sudden 
ness,  from  among  the  strange  old  craft  which  for 
so  long  on  every  side  had  beset  me  and  found  my 
self  among  ships  which  by  comparison  with  the 
others — though  they  too,  in  all  conscience,  were 
old  enough — seemed  to  be  quite  of  a  modern  build. 
What  is  likely,  I  think — and  this  would  help  to  ac 
count  for  my  long  wanderings  over  those  ancient 
rotten  hulks — is  that  some  stormy  commotion  of 
the  whole  mass  of  wreckage,  such  as  had  thrust 
the  barque  whereon  I  had  found  food  deep  into 
the  thick  of  it,  had  squeezed  a  part  of  the  centre 
of  the  pack  outward ;  in  that  way  making  a  sort 
o  209 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

of  promontory  —  along  which  by  mere  bad  mis 
chance  I  had  been  journeying — among  the  wrecks 
of  a  later  time.  But  this  notion  did  not  then  occur 
to  me ;  nor  did  I,  as  I  have  said,  at  first  feel  any 
very  thrilling  hope  coming  back  to  me  when  I 
found  myself  among  modern  ships  again — so  worn 
had  my  long  tussle  with  difficulties  left  my  body 
and  so  sodden  was  my  mind. 

At  first  I  had  just  a  dull  feeling  of  satisfaction 
that  I  had  got  once  more — after  my  many  nights 
passed  on  hulks  soaked  with  wet  to  rottenness — on 
good  honest  dry  planks  :  where  I  could  sleep  with 
no  deadly  chill  striking  into  me,  and  where  in  my 
restless  wakings  I  should  not  see  the  pale  gleam  of 
death-fires,  and  where  foul  stenches  would  not  half 
stifle  me  the  whole  night  long.  And  it  was  not 
until  I  had  eaten  my  scant  supper,  and  because  of 
the  comfort  that  even  that  little  food  gave  me  felt 
more  disposed  to  cheerfulness,  that  in  a  weak 
faint-hearted  way  I  began  to  hope  again  that 
perhaps  the  run  of  luck  against  me  had  come  to 
an  end. 

In  truth,  though,  there  was  not  much  to  be  hope 
ful  about.  For  my  supper  I  had  eaten  the  half  of 
what  food  was  left  me,  and  it  was  so  little  that  I 
still-  had  a  mighty  hungry  feeling  in  my  belly  after 
it  was  down.  For  my  breakfast  I  should  eat  what 
was  left ;  and  after  that,  unless  I  found  fresh  sup 
plies  quickly,  I  was  in  a  fair  way  to  lie  down  be- 

210 


I   RUB    SHOULDERS   WITH   DESPAIR 

side  my  bag  of  jewels  and  die  of  starvation — like 
the  veriest  beggar  that  ever  was.  But  I  did  hope 
a  little  all  the  same ;  and  when  I  went  on  again 
the  next  morning,  though  my  last  scrap  of  food 
was  eaten,  my  spirits  kept  up  pretty  well — for  I 
was  sure  from  the  look  of  the  wrecks  which  I 
traversed  that  the  dead  ancient  centre  of  my  con 
tinent  at  last  was  behind  me,  and  that  its  living 
outer  fringe  could  not  be  very  far  away. 

All  that  day  I  pressed  forward  steadily,  helped 
by  my  little  flickering  flame  of  hope — which  burned 
low  because  sanguine  expectation  does  not  consort 
well  with  an  empty  stomach,  yet  which  kept  alive 
because  the  wreck-pack  had  more  and  more  of  a 
modern  look  about  it  as  I  went  on.  But  the  faint- 
ness  that  I  felt  coming  over  me  as  the  day  waned 
gave  me  warning  that  the  rope  by  which  I  held 
my  life  was  a  short  one ;  and  as  the  sun  dropped 
down  into  the  mist — at  once  thinning  it,  so  that  I 
could  see  farther,  and  giving  it  a  ruddy  tone  which 
sent  red  streams  of  brightness  gleaming  over  the 
tangle  of  wreckage  far  down  into  tfye  west — I  felt 
that  the  rope  must  come  to  an  end  altogether,  and 
that  I  must  stop  still  and  let  death  overtake  me, 
by  the  sunset  of  one  day  more. 

And  then  it  was,  just  as  the  sun  was  sinking, 
that  I  saw  clearly — far  away  to  the  westward— 
the  funnel  of  a  steamer  standing  out  black  and 
sharp  against  the  blood  -  red  ball  that  in  another 

211 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

minute  went  down  into  the  sea.  And  with  that 
glimpse — which  made  me  sure  that  I  was  close  to 
the  edge  of  the  wreck-pack,  and  so  close  to  food 
again — a  strong  warm  rush  of  hope  swept  through 
me  that  outcast  finally  my  despair. 


XXIX 

I    GET    INTO    A    SEA    CHARNEL-HOUSE 

THAT  I  should  get  to  the  steamer  that  night  I 
knew  was  clean  impossible,  for  she  lay  a  long  way 
off  from  me,  and  that  I  had  seen  her  funnel  at  all 
was  due  to  the  mere  happy  accident  of  its  standing 
for  that  single  minute  directly  between  me  and  the 
setting  sun.  I  did  hope,  though,  that  by  pressing 
hard  toward  her  I  might  fetch  aboard  of  some  ves 
sel  not  long  wrecked  on  which  I  would  find  eatable 
food ;  yet  in  this  I  was  disappointed,  the  shadows 
coming  down  on  me  so  fast  that  I  was  forced  in  a 
little  while  to  pull  up  short — stopping  while  still  a 
little  daylight  remained  so  that  I  might  stow  my 
self  the  more  comfortably  for  the  night. 

As  to  looking  for  provender  on  the  little  old  ship 
that  I  settled  to  camp  on,  I  knew  that  it  was  useless. 
From  her  build  I  fixed  her  as  belonging  to  the  be 
ginning  of  the  present  century,  and  from  her  depth 
in  the  wreck-pack  she  probably  had  met  her  death- 
storm  not  less  than  threescore  years  before;  and 
so  what  provisions  she  had  carried  long  since  had 
wasted  away.  Yet  there  was  a  chance  that  I  might 

213 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

find  some  spirits  aboard  of  her — which  would  be  a 
poor  substitute  for  food,  but  better  than  nothing — 
and  I  hurried  to  have  a  look  in  her  cabin  before 
darkness  settled  down. 

The  cabin  hatch  was  closed,  and  as  it  was  both 
locked  and  swelled  with  moisture  I  could  not  budge 
it ;  but  two  or  three  kicks  sent  the  doors  beneath 
the  hatch  flying  and  so  opened  an  entrance  for  me 
—that  I  was  slow  to  make  use  of  because  of  a 
heavy  musty  stench  which  poured  out  from  that 
shut  up  place  and  made  me  turn  a  little  sick,  as  I 
got  my  first  strong  whiff  of  it.  Indeed,  I  was  so 
faint  and  so  hungry  that  I  was  in  no  condition  to 
stand  up  against  that  curiously  vile  smell.  To  les 
sen  it,  by  getting  a  current  of  air  into  the  cabin,  I 
smashed  in  the  little  skylight — over  which  some 
ropes  were  stretched  and  still  held  the  remnant  of 
a  tarpaulin,  that  must  have  been  set  in  place  while 
the  storm  was  blowing  which  sent  the  ship  to  her 
account ;  and  this  so  far  improved  matters  that 
presently  I  was  able  to  go  down  the  companion- 
\vay,  though  the  stench  still  was  horridly  strong. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  stair,  the  light  being  faint, 
I  tripped  over  something ;  and  looking  down  saw 
bones  lying  there  with  a  sort  of  fungus  partly  cov 
ering  them,  and  to  the  skull  there  still  clung  a  mat  of 
woolly  hair  plaited  here  and  there  into  little  braids : 
by  which,  and  by  the  size  of  the  bones,  it  seemed 
that  a  negro  woman  must  have  been  left  fastened 

214 


I   GET    INTO   A   SEA   CHARNEL-HOUSE 

into  the  cabin  to  die  there  after  the  crew  had  been 
washed  overboard  or  had  taken  to  the  boats. 
But  even  then  the  business  in  which  the  ship  had 
been  engaged  did  not  occur  to  me ;  and  after  hesi 
tating  for  a  moment  I  went  on  into  the  cabin,  and 
looked  about  me  as  well  as  I  could  in  the  twilight 
for  the  case  of  bottles  that  I  hoped  to  find. 

The  case  was  there,  as  I  was  pretty  certain  that 
it  would  be,  such  provision  rarely  being  absent 
from  old-time  vessels,  but  all  the  bottles  had  been 
taken  from  it  except  an  empty  one — which  looked 
as  though  the  cabin  had  been  opened  at  the  last  mo 
ment  to  fetch  out  supplies  for  the  boats,  and  then 
deliberately  locked  fast  again  with  the  poor  woman 
inside :  an  act  so  barbarous  that  it  did  not  seem 
possible  unless  a  crew  of  out  and  out  devils  had 
been  in  charge  of  the  ancient  craft.  However,  the 
matter  which  just  then  most  concerned  me  was  the 
liquor  that  I  was  in  search  of,  that  I  might  a  little 
stay  my  stomach  with  it  against  the  hunger  that  was 
tormenting  me ;  and  so  I  ransacked  the  lockers  that 
ran  across  the  stern  of  the  ship  and  across  a  part 
of  the  bulkhead  forward,  in  the  faint  hope  that  I 
might  come  upon  another  supply — but  my  search 
was  a  vain  one,  two  of  the  lockers  having  only 
some  mouldy  clothing  in  them,  and  all  the  rest  be 
ing  filled  with  arms.  The  stock  of  muskets  and 
pistols  and  cutlasses  was  so  large,  so  far  beyond 
any  honest  traders  needs,  that  I  could  not  at  all 

215 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

account  for  it :  until  the  thought  occurred  to  me 
that  the  vessel  I  had  come  aboard  of  had  been  a 
pirate— and  that  notion  seemed  to  fit  in  pretty  well 
with  her  crew  having  gone  off  and  left  the  poor 
woman  locked  up  in  the  cabin  to  starve.  However, 
as  I  found  out  a  little  later,  while  my  guess  was  a 
close  one  it  still  was  wrong. 

The  four  bunks,  two  on  each  side,  were  not  en 
closed,  and  the  only  door  opening  from  the  cabin 
was  in  the  bulkhead  forward — and  worth  trying 
because  it  might  lead  to  a  store-room,  I  thought. 
It  was  a  very  stout-looking  door,  and  across  it, 
resting  in  strong  iron  catches,  were  two  heavy 
wooden  bars.  These  puzzled  me  a  good  deal,  there 
being  no  sense  in  barring  the  outside  of  a  store 
room  door  in  that  fashion,  since  the  door  did  not 
seem  to  be  locked  and  anybody  could  lift  the  bars 
away.  However,  I  got  them  out  of  their  sockets 
without  much  difficulty  ;  and  after  a  good  deal  of 
tugging  at  a  ring  made  fast  in  it  I  got  the  door 
open  too  —  and  instantly  I  was  thrust  back  from 
the  opening  by  an  outpouring  of  the  same  vile 
heavy  musty  stench  that  had  come  up  from  the 
cabin  when  I  staved  in  the  hatch,  only  this  was  still 
ranker  and  more  vile.  And  I  found  that  the  door 
did  not  lead  into  a  little  store-room,  as  I  had  fan 
cied,  but  right  through  from  the  cabin  to  the  ship's 
main -deck — that  stretched  away  forward  in  a 
gloomy  tunnel,  as  black  as  a  cellar  on  a  rainy 

216 


I    GET   INTO    A    SEA    CHARNEL-HOUSE 

night,  into  which  I  could  see  only  for  four  or  five 
yards.  Indeed,  but  for  the  way  that  the  ship 
chanced  to  be  lying — with  her  stern  toward  the 
west,  so  that  a  good  deal  of  light  came  in  through 
the  broken  skylight  from  the  ruddy  sunset  —  I 
could  not  have  seen  into  it  at  all. 

But  I  saw  far  enough,  and  more  than  far  enough 
—and  the  sight  that  I  looked  on  sent  all  over  me  a 
creeping  chill.  Wherever  the  light  went,  skeletons 
were  lying — with  a  fungus  growth  on  the  bones 
that  gave  a  horrid  effect  of  scraps  of  flesh  still 
clinging  to  them,  and  the  loose -lying  skulls  (of 
which  a  couple  were  close  by  the  doorway)  were 
covered  still  with  a  matting  of  woolly  hair.  And 
I  could  tell  from  the  tangle  that  the  skeletons  were 
in — though  also  lying  in  some  sort  of  orderly  rows, 
because  of  the  chains  which  held  them  fast — that 
the  poor  wretches  to  whom  they  had  belonged  had 
writhed  and  struggled  over  each  other  in  their 
agony :  and  I  could  fancy  wrhat  a  hell  that  black 
place  must  have  been  while  death  was  doing  his 
work  among  them,  they  all  squirming  together  like 
worms  in  a  pot ;  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  could 
hear  their  yells  and  howls — at  first  loud  and  terri 
ble,  and  then  growing  fainter  and  fainter  until 
they  came  to  be  but  low  groans  of  misery  that  at 
last  ended  softly  in  dying  sighs. 

The  horror  of  it  all  came  home  to  me  so  sharply, 
after  I  had  stood  there  at  the  doorway  for  a  moment 

217 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

or  two  held  fast  by  a  sort  of  ghastly  fascination, 
that  I  gave  a  yell  myself  as  keen  and  as  loud  as 
any  which  the  poor  blacks  had  uttered;  and  with 
that  I  turned  about  and  dashed  up  the  companion- 
way  to  the  deck  as  hard  as  I  could  go.  Nor  could 
I  bear  to  abide  on  the  slave-ship,  nor  even  near  her, 
for  the  night.  Yery  little  light  was  left  to  me, 
but  I  made  the  most  of  it  and  went  scrambling 
from  hulk  to  hulk  until  I  had  put  a  good  distance 
behind  me — so  that  I  not  only  could  not  see  her 
but  could  not  tell  certainly,  having  twisted  and 
turned  a  dozen  times  in  my  scurrying  flight,  in 
which  direction  she  lay.  And  being  thus  rid  of 
her,  I  fairly  dropped — so  weak  and  so  wearied  was  I 
— on  the  deck  of  the  vessel  that  I  had  come  to,  and 
lay  there  for  a  while  resting,  with  my  breath  com 
ing  and  going  in  panting  sobs. 

What  sort  of  a  craft  I  had  fetched  aboard  of  I 
did  not  dare  to  try  to  find  out.  Going  any  farther 
then  was  impossible,  the  twilight  having  slipped 
away  almost  into  darkness,  and  whatever  she  might 
be  I  had  to  make  the  best  of  her  for  the  night.  And 
so  I  settled  myself  into  a  corner  well  up  in  her 
bows  —  that  I  might  be  as  far  away  as  possible 
from  any  grisly  things  that  might  be  hid  in  her 
cabin — and  did  my  best  to  go  to  sleep.  But  it  was 
a  long  while,  utterly  weary  though  I  was,  before 
sleep  would  come  to  me.  My  stomach,  being 
pretty  well  reconciled  by  that  time  to  emptiness, 

218 


I    GET    INTO    A    SEA    CHARNEL-HOUSE 

did  not  bother  me  much;  but  my  frightened  rush 
away  from  that  sickening  charnel-house  had  left 
me  greatly  tormented  by  thirst,  and  my  mind  was 
so  fevered  by  the  horror  of  what  I  had  seen  that 
for  a  long  while  I  could  not  stop  making  pictures 
to  myself  of  the  black  wretches,  chained  and  im 
prisoned,  writhing  under  the  torture  of  starvation 
and  at  last  dying  desperate  in  the  dark.  And 
when  sleep  did  corne  to  me  I  still  had  the  same 
loathsome  horrors  with  me  in  my  dreams. 


XXX 

I   COME   TO   THE    WALL    OF   MY    SEA-PEISON 

THE  morning  shower  that  waked  me  gave  me 
the  water  that  I  so  longed  for ;  bat  it  only  a  little 
refreshed  me,  because  my  chief  need  was  food. 
Being  past  the  first  sharp  pangs  of  hunger,  I  was 
in  no  great  bodily  pain ;  but  a  heavy  languor  was 
upon  me  that  dulled  me  in  both  flesh  and  spirit 
and  disposed  me  to  give  up  struggling  for  a  while, 
that  I  might  enjoy  what  seemed  to  me  just  then  to 
be  the  supreme  delight  of  sitting  still.  Yet  I  had 
sense  enough  to  know  that  if  I  surrendered  to  this 
feeling  it  would  be  the  end  of  me ;  and  after  a  lit 
tle  I  found  energy  enough  to  throw  it  off. 

I  was  helped  thus  to  rouse  myself  by  finding,  as 
I  looked  around  me  with  dull  eyes,  that  the  hulk  I 
had  come  aboard  of  in  such  a  hurry  in  the  twilight 
certainly  had  not  been  wrecked  for  any  great  length 
of  time.  She  was  a  good  -  sized  schooner,  quite 
modern  in  her  buiid  ;  and,  although  she  had  weath 
ered  everywhere  to  a  pale  gray,  her  timbers  were 
not  rotten  and  what  was  left  of  her  cordage  still 
was  fairly  sound  :  all  of  which,  as  I  took  it  in  slow- 

220 


THE   WALL   OF   MY   SEA-PRISON 

lv,  gave  me  hope  of  finding  aboard  of  her  some 
sort  of  eatable  food. 

But  while  this  hope  was  slow  to  shape  itself  in 
my  heavy  mind,  I  was  quick  enough  to  act  upon 
it  when  once  it  had  taken  form.  With  a  briskness 
that  quite  astonished  me  I  got  on  my  feet  and 
walked  aft  to  the  cabin— the  cabin  pantry  being 
the  most  likely  place  in  which  to  look  for  food  put 
up  in  tins ;  and  I  was  farther  encouraged  by  finding 
the  hatch  open  and  the  cabin  itself  fresh-smelling 
and  clean.  And,  to  my  joy,  the  food  that  I  hoped 
to  find  in  the  pantry  really  was  there ;  and  such  a 
plenty  of  it  that  I  could  not  have  eaten  it  in  a 
whole  year. 

I  had  the  good  sense  to  go  slowly — and  that  was 
not  easy,  for  at  sight  of  something  that  would  sat 
isfy  it  my  hunger  all  of  a  sudden  woke  up  raging- 
ly ;  but  I  knew  that  I  stood  a  good  chance  of  kill 
ing  myself  after  my  long  fast  unless  I  held  my 
appetite  well  in  hand,  and  so  I  began  with  a  tin  of 
peaches — opening  it  with  a  knife  that  I  found  there 
— and  it  seemed  to  me  that  those  peaches  were  the 
most  delicious  thing  that  I  had  tasted  since  I  was 
born.  After  they  were  down  I  went  on  deck  again 
—to  be  out  of  reach  of  temptation — and  staid  there 
resolutely  for  an  hour ;  getting  at  this  time,  and 
also  keeping  myself  a  little  quiet,  by  counting  six 
thousand  slowly — and  it  did  seem  to  me  as  though 
I  never  should  get  to  the  end !  Then  I  had  an- 

221 


IN   THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

other  of  those  delicious  tins ;  and  after  a  trying 
half  hour  of  waiting  I  had  a  third ;  and  then — be 
ing  no  longer  ravenous,  and  no  longer  having  the 
feeling  of  infinite  emptiness — I  laid  down  on  the 
deck  just  outside  the  cabin  scuttle  and  slept  like  a 
tree  in  winter  until  well  along  in  the  afternoon. 

I  woke  as  hungry  as  a  hound,  but  with  a  com 
fortable  and  natural  sort  of  hunger  that  I  set  my 
self  to  satisfying  with  good  strong  food :  eating  a 
tin  of  meat  with  a  lively  relish  and  without  any 
following  stomach-ache,  and  drinking  the  juice  of 
a  tin  of  peaches  after  it — there  being  no  water  fit 
to  drink  on  board.  My  meal  began  to  set  me  on 
my  feet  again  ;  but  I  still  felt  so  tired  and  so  shaky 
that  I  decided  to  stay  where  I  was  until  the  next 
morning — having  at  last  a  comforting  sense  of  se 
curity  that  took  away  my  desire  to  hurry  and  made 
me  wholly  easy  in  my  mind.  And  this  feeling  got 
stronger  as  the  sun  fell  away  westward  and  made 
a  crimson  bank  of  mist  along  the  horizon,  against 
which  I  saw  the  funnels  of  more  than  a  dozen 
steamers — and  so  knew  that  the  coast  of  my  con 
tinent  surely  was  close  by.  What  I  would  do 
when  I  got  to  the  steamers  was  a  matter  that  I  did 
not  bother  about.  For  the  moment  I  was  satisfied 
with  the  certainty  that  I  would  find  aboard  of 
them  food  in  plenty  and  a  comfortable  place  to 
sleep  in,  and  that  was  enough.  And  so  I  did  not 
make  any  plans,  or  even  think  much ;  but  just  ate 

222 


THE   WALL   OF   MY  SEA-PRISON 

as  much  supper  as  I  could  stow  away  in  my  car 
case,  and  then  settled  myself  in  the  schooner's  cabin 
for  the  night. 

In  the  morning  I  was  so  well  rested,  and  felt  so 
fresh  again,  that  I  was  eager  to  get  on ;  and  I  was 
so  light-hearted  that  I  fell  to  singing  as  I  pushed 
forward  briskly,  being  full  of  hope  once  more  and 
of  airy  fancies  that  I  had  only  to  reach  the  edge 
of  the  wreck-pack  in  order  to  hit  upon  some  easy 
way  of  getting  off  from  it  out  over  the  open  sea. 
A  little  thinking  would  have  shown  me,  of  course, 
that  my  fancies  had  nothing  to  rest  on,  and  that 
coming  once  more  to  the  coast  of  my  continent 
was  only  to  be  where  I  was  when  my  long  journey 
through  that  death-stricken  mass  of  rottenness  be 
gan;  but  the  reaction  of  my  spirits  was  natural 
enough  after  the  gloom  that  for  so  long  had  held 
them,  and  so  was  the  castle-building  that  I  took  to 
as  I  went  onward  as  to  what  I  would  do  with  my 
great  treasure  when  at  last  I  had  it  safe  out  in  the 
living  world. 

Although  I  did  not  doubt  that  food  of  some  sort 
was  to  be  found  on  board  of  all  the  vessels  which 
I  should  cross  that  day,  I  guarded  against  losing 
time  in  looking  for  it  by  carrying  along  with  me 
a  couple  of  tins  of  meat— slung  on  my  shoulders  in 
a  wrapping  of  canvas — and  on  one  of  these,  about 
noon-time,  I  made  a  good  meal.  When  I  had  fin 
ished  it  I  was  sorry  enough  that  I  had  not  brought 

223 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

a  tin  of  peaches  too,  for  the  meat  was  pretty  well 
salted  and  made  ine  as  thirsty  as  a  fish  very  soon 
after  I  got  it  down. 

But  my  thirst  was  not  severe  enough  to  trouble 
me  greatly ;  and,  indeed,  I  partly  forgot  it  in  my 
steadily  growing  excitement  as  I  pressed  forward 
and  more  and  more  distinctly  saw  the  funnels  of  a 
whole  fleet  of  steamers  looming  up  through  the 
golden  mist  ahead  of  me  like  chimneys  in  a  sun- 
shot  London  fog.  And  so  the  afternoon  went  by, 
and  my  crooked  rough  path  slipped  away  behind 
me  so  rapidly  that  by  a  good  hour  before  sunset  I 
was  near  enough  to  the  steamers  to  see  not  only 
their  funnels  but  their  hulls. 

The  look  of  one  of  them,  and  she  was  one  of  the 
nearest,  was  so  familiar  as  I  began  to  make  her  out 
clearly  that  I  was  sure  that  1  had  got  back  again 
to  the  Hurst  Castle;  for  she  was  just  about  the 
size  of  the  Hurst  Castle,  and  was  lying  with  her 
bow  down  in  the  water  and  her  stern  high  in  the 
air — and  the  delight  of  this  discovery  threw  me 
into  such  a  ferment  that  I  quite  forgot  how  tired  I 
was  and  fairly  ran  across  the  last  half  dozen  vessels 
that  I  had  to  traverse  before  I  came  under  her  tall 
side.  However,  when  I  got  close  to  her  I  saw  that 
she  was  not  the  Hurst  Castle  after  all,  but  only 
another  unlucky  vessel  that  had  broken  her  nose 
in  collision  and  so  had  filled  forward  and  gone  sag 
ging  down  by  the  bows. 

224 


THE   WALL   OF  MY   SEA-PRISON 

As  it  happened,  the  wreck  from  which  I  had  to 
board  her  was  a  little  water-logged  brig,  close  un 
der  her  quarter,  so  low -lying  that  the  tilted -up 
stern  of  the  steamer  fairly  towered  above  the  brig- 
like  a  three-story  house ;  and  at  first  it  seemed  to 
me  that  I  was  about  as  likely  to  climb  up  a  house- 
front  as  I  was  to  climb  up  that  high  smooth  wall 
of  iron.  But  a  part  of  the  brig's  foremast  still  was 
standing,  and  from  it  a  yard  jutted  out  to  within 
jumping  distance  of  the  steamer's  rail ;  and  while 
that  was  not  a  way  that  I  fancied — nor  a  way  that 
ever  I  should  have  dared  to  take,  I  suppose,  had 
there  been  any  choice  in  the  matter — up  it  I  had 
to  go.  Hot  as  I  was  though  with  eagerness,  I  was 
a  badly  scared  man  as  I  slowly  got  to  my  feet  and 
steadied  myself  for  a  moment  on  the  end  of  the 
yard  and  then  jumped  for  it;  and  a  very' thankful 
man,  an  instant  later,  when  I  struck  the  steamer's 
rail  and  fell  floundering  inboard  on  her  deck- 
though  I  bruised  myself  in  my  fall  pretty  badly, 
and  got  an  unexpected  crack  on  the  back  of  my 
head  as  my  bag  of  jewels  flew  up  and  hit  me  with 
a  bang. 

However,  no  real  harm  was  done ;  and  I  was  so 
keen  to  look  about  me  that  in  a  moment  I  was  on 
my  legs  again  and  went  forward,  limping  a  little, 
that  I  might  get  up  on  the  bridge :  for  my  strong 
est  desire — stronger  even  than  my  longing  to  go  in 
search  of  the  water  that  I  did  not  doubt  I  would 
p  225 


IN    THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

find  in  the  steamer's  tanks — was  to  gaze  out  over 
the  open  ocean,  across  which  I  had  to  go  in  some 
way  if  ever  again  I  was  to  be  free. 

The  sun  was  close  down  on  the  horizon,  a  red 
ball  of  fire  glowing  through  the  mist,  and  in  the 
mist  above  and  over  the  surface  of  the  sea  below  a 
red  light  shone.  But  as  I  stood  on  the  bridge  look 
ing  at  this  strange  splendor  all  my  hope  died  away 
slowly  within  me  and  a  chill  settled  upon  my  heart. 
As  far  as  ever  I  could  see  the  water  was  covered 
thickly  with  tangled  and  matted  weed,  broken  only 
here  and  there  by  hummocks  of  wreckage  and  by 
a  few  hulks  drifting  in  slowly  to  take  their  places 
in  the  ranks  of  the  dead.  The  almost  impercepti 
ble  progress  of  these  hulks  showed  how  dense  was 
the  mass  through  which  they  were  drifting ;  and 
showed,  too,  how  utterly  impossible  it  would  be  for 
me  to  force  my  way  in  a  boat  driven  by  oars  or 
sails  to  the  clear  water  lying  far,  far  off.  Even  a 
steamer  scarcely  could  have  pushed  through  that 
tangle;  and  could  not  have  gone  twice  her  own 
length  without  hopelessly  fouling  her  screw.  And 
it  seemed  to  me  that  I  might  better  have  died  on 
one  of  the  old  rotten  hulks  among  which  I  had 
been  for  so  long  a  time  wandering — where  hope 
was  not,  and  where  I  was  well  in  the  mood  for 
dying — rather  than  thus  to  have  got  clear  of  them, 
and  have  hope  come  back  to  me.  only  to  bring  up 
short  against  the  wall  of  my  sea-prison  and  so  find 

226 


THE   WALL   OF   MY   SEA-PRISON 

myself  held  fast  there  for  all  the  remainder  of  my 
days.  And  I  was  the  more  savagely  bitter  because 
I  had  no  right  whatever  to  be  disappointed.  "What 
I  saw  was  not  new  to  me,  and  I  had  known  what 
I  was  coming  to — though  I  had  kept  down  my 
thoughts  about  it — all  along. 


XXXI 

HOW  HOPE  DIED  OUT  OF  MY  HEART 

THE  steamer  that  I  had  come  aboard  of  proved 
to  be  French ;  and  that  she  had  not  long  been  aban 
doned  I  knew  by  finding  an  abundance  of  ice  in 
her  cold-room  and  a  great  deal  of  fresh  meat  there 
too.  Had  she  been  manned  by  a  stiff-necked  crew 
she  would  not  have  been  abandoned  at  all,  She 
had  been  in  collision,  and  her  bow -compartment 
was  full  of  water ;  but  the  water  had  not  got  aft 
of  her  foremast,  and  except  that  she  was  down  by 
the  head  a  little  she  was  not  much  the  worse  for 
her  bang.  That  her  captain  had  tried  to  carry  on 
after  the  accident  was  shown  by  the  sail  that  had 
been  set  in  place  very  snugly  over  her  smashed 
bows ;  and  I  greatly  wondered  why  he  had  given 
up  the  fight,  until  I  found — getting  a  look  at  her 
stern  from  one  of  the  wrecks  lying  near  her— that 
her  screw  was  gone.  This  second  accident  evi 
dently  had  been  too  much  for  her  people  and  they 
had  taken  to  the  boats  and  left  her.  But  I  think 
that  an  English  or  an  American  crew  would  have 
stood  by  her,  and  would  have  succeeded  in  getting 

228 


HOW  HOPE   DIED    OUT  OF   MY   HEART 

her  towed  into  port — or  even  would  have  brought 
her  in  under  her  own  sails.  She  was  called  the 
Ville  de  Saint  Remy,  and  was  a  fine  boat  of  about 
five  thousand  tons. 

All  that  I  had  hoped  to  find  aboard  of  her  in  the 
way  of  comforts  and  luxuries  was  there,  and  more 
too.  Indeed,  if  a  good  bed,  and  the  best  of  food, 
and  excellent  wines  and  tobacco,  had  been  all  that 
I  wanted  I  very  well  might  have  settled  myself  on 
the  Ville  de  Saint  Remy  for  the  balance  of  my 
days.  But  I  almost  resented  the  luck  which  had 
brought  me  all  these  things — for  which  I  had  been 
longing  so  keenly  but  a  few  hours  before — because 
I  did  not  find  with  them  what  I  desired  still  more 
earnestly :  the  means  that  would  enable  me  to  get 
away  seaward  and  leave  them  all  behind.  What 
such  means  would  be,  it  is  only  fair  to  add,  I  could 
not  imagine;  at  least,  I  could  not  imagine  any 
thing  at  all  reasonable — for  the  only  thing  I  could 
think  of  that  would  carry  me  out  across  that  weed- 
covered  ocean  to  open  water  was  a  balloon. 

And  so,  although  I  fed  daintily  and  drank  of 
the  best,  and  had  good  tobacco  tp  cheer  me  after 
my  meals,  my  first  day  aboard  the  Ville  de  Saint 
Remy  was  as  sad  a  one  as  any  that  I  had  passed 
since  I  had  come  into  my  sea-prison  ;  for  while  the 
daylight  lasted,  and  I  wandered  about  her  decks 
looking  always  at  the  barrier  of  weed  which  held 
me  there,  I  had  clearly  before  me  the  impossibility 

229 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

of  ever  getting  away.  Only  when  darkness  came, 
hiding  my  prison  walls  from  me,  did  I  become  a 
little  more  cheerful — as  the  very  human  disposi 
tion  to  make  light  of  difficulties  when  they  no 
longer  are  visible  began  to  assert  itself  in  my 
mind. 

Down  in  the  comfortable  cabin,  well  lighted  and 
airy,  I  had  a  capital  dinner — and  a  bottle  of  sound 
Bordeaux  with  it  that  no  doubt  added  a  good  deal 
to  my  sanguine  cheerfulness  ;  and  to  end  with  I 
made  myself  some  delicious  coffee — over  a  spirit- 
lamp  that  I  found  in  the  pantry — and  had  with  it 
a  glass  of  Benedictine  and  a  very  choice  cigar. 
And  all  of  these  luxurious  refreshments  of  the 
flesh — which  set  me  to  smiling  a  little  as  I  thought 
of  the  contrast  that  they  made  to  my  surroundings 
— so  comforted  my  spirit  that  my  gloomy  thoughts 
left  me,  and  I  began  to  plan  airily  how  I  would 
start  off  in  a  boat  well  loaded  with  provisions  and 
somehow  or  another  push  my  way  through  the 
weed.  I  even  got  along  to  details :  deciding  that 
it  would  be  quite  an  easy  matter  to  open  a  way 
through  the  tangle  over  the  bows  of  my  boat  with 
an  oar — or  with  an  axe,  if  need  be— and  then  press 
forward  by  poling  against  the  weed  on  each  side ; 
which  seemed  so  feasible  a  method  that  I  concluded 
I  could  accomplish  readily  at  least  a  mile  a  day. 
And  so,  with  these  fine  fancies  dancing  in  my 
brain,  I  settled  myself  into  a  delightful  bed  ;  and 

230 


HOW   HOPE   DIED   OUT   OF   MY   HEART 

as  I  drowsed  off  deliciously  I  had  the  comforting 
conviction  that  in  a  little  while  longer  all  my  diffi 
culties  would  be  conquered  and  all  my  troubles  at 
an  end. 

With  the  return  of  daylight,  giving  me  an  out 
look  over  the  weed-covered  water  again,  most  of 
my  hopefulness  left  me  along  with  most  of  my 
faith  in  my  airily -made  plan;  but  even  in  this 
colder  mood  it  did  seem  to  me  that  there  was  at 
least  a  chance  of  my  pulling  through  —  and  my 
slim  courage  was  strengthened  by  the  feeling 
within  me  that  unless  I  threw  myself  with  all 
my  energy  into  work  of  some  sort  I  presently 
would  find  myself  going  melancholy  mad.  And 
so,  but  only  half-heartedly,  I  mustered  up  resolu 
tion  to  make  a  trial  of  my  poor  project  for  getting 
away. 

On  board  the  Ville  de  Saint  Remy  there  was 
nothing  to  be  done.  The  corner-stone  of  my  un 
dertaking  was  finding  a  boat  and  launching  it,  and 
the  Frenchmen — in  their  panic-stricken  scamper 
from  a  danger  that  was  mainly  in  their  own  lively 
imaginations  —  had  carried  all  their  boats  away. 
It  was  necessary,  therefore,  that  I  should  go  on  a 
cruise  among  the  other  wrecks  lying  around  me  in 
search  of  a  boat  still  in  a  condition  to  swim  ;  but  I 
was  very  careful  this  time — profiting  by  my  rough 
experience — to  make  sure  before  I  started  of  my 
safe  return.  Fortunately  the  stern  of  the  steamer 

231 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

was  so  high  out  of  the  water  that  it  rose  conspicu 
ously  above  the  wrecks  lying  thereabouts ;  but  to 
make  her  still  more  conspicuous  I  roused  out  a 
couple  of  French  flags  and  an  American  flag  from 
her  signal-chest  and  set  them  at  her  three  mast 
heads — giving  to  our  own  colors  the  place  of  honor 
on  the  mainmast— and  so  made  her  quite  unmis 
takable  from  as  far  off  as  I  could  see  her  through 
the  haze.  And  as  a  still  farther  precaution  against 
losing  myself  I  hunted  up  a  hatchet  to  take  along 
with  me  to  blaze  my  way.  All  of  which  matters 
being  attended  to,  I  made  a  rope  fast  to  the  rail- 
knotting  it  at  intervals,  so  that  I  could  climb  it 
again  easily — and  so  slipped  down  the  steamer's 
side. 

My  business  was  only  with  the  wrecks  lying 
along  the  extreme  outer  edge  of  the  pack — from 
which  alone  it  would  be  possible  for  me  to  launch 
a  boat  in  the  event  of  my  finding  one — but  in  or 
der  to  get  from  one  to  the  other  of  them  I  had  to 
make  so  many  long  detours  that  my  progress  was 
very  slow.  Indeed,  by  the  time  that  noon  came, 
and  I  stopped  to  eat  my  dinner — which  I  had 
brought  along  Avith  me,  that  I  need  not  have  to 
hunt  for  it — I  had  made  less  than  half  a  mile  in 
a  straight  line.  And  in  none  of  the  vessels  that  I 
had  crossed  —  except  on  one  lying  so  far  in  the 
pack  as  to  be  of  no  use  to  me — had  I  found  a  sin 
gle  boat  that  would  swim. 

282 


HOW  HOPE  DIED  OUT  OF  MY  HEART 

Nor  had  I  any  better  luck  when  I  went  on  with 
my  search  again  in  the  afternoon.  As  it  had  been 
in  the  case  of  the  Hurst  Castle,  so  it  had  been,  I  sup 
pose,  in  the  case  of  all  the  wrecks  which  I  examined 
that  day :  either  their  boats  had  been  staved-in  or 
washed  overboard  by  tempest,  or  else  had  served 
to  carry  away  their  crews.  But  what  had  become 
of  them,  so  far  as  I  was  concerned,  made  no  dif 
ference — the  essential  matter  was  that  they  were 
gone.  And  so,  toward  evening,  I  turned  backward 
from  my  fruitless  journey  and  headed  for  the 
Ville  de  Saint  Remy  again  —  for  I  had  found  no 
other  ship  so  comfortable  in  the  course  of  my  ex 
plorations — and  got  safe  aboard  of  her  just  as  the 
sun  was  going  down. 

That  night  I  had  not  much  comfort  iu  the  good 
dinner  that  I  set  out  for  myself — though  I  was 
glad  enough  to  get  it,  being  both  hungry  and  tired 
— and  I  only  half  plucked  up  my  spirits  over  my 
coffee  and  cigar.  But  still,  as  the  needs  of  my  body 
were  gratified,  my  mind  got  so  far  soothed  and  re 
freshed  that  I  held  to  my  purpose — which  had  been 
pretty  much  given  over  when  I, came  back  tired 
and  hungry  after  my  vain  search — and  I  went  to 
bed  resolute  to  begin  again  my  explorations  on  the 
following  day. 

But  when  the   morning  came  and  I  set  off- 
though  I  had  a  good  breakfast  inside  of  me,  and 
such  a  store  of  food  by  me  as  fairly  would  have 

233 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

sot  me  dancing  with  delight  only  a  week  before — 
I  was  in  low  spirits  and  went  at  my  work  rather 
because  I  was  resolved  to  push  through  with  it 
than  because  I  had  any  strong  hope  that  it  would 
give  me  what  I  desired. 

This  time — having  already  examined  the  wrecks 
for  near  a  mile  northward  along  the  edge  of  the 
pack — I  set  my  course  for  the  south ;  and  again, 
until  late  in  the  afternoon,  I  worked  my  way  from 
ship  to  ship — with  long  detours  inland  from  time 
to  time  in  order  to  get  around  some  break  in  the 
coast-line  —  and  on  all  of  them  the  result  was 
the  same :  not  a  boat  did  I  find  anywhere  that  was 
not  so  riven  and  shattered  as  to  be  beyond  all  hope 
of  repair.  And  at  nightfall  I  came  back  once  more 
to  the  Ville  de  Saint  Remy  wearied  out  in  body 
and  utterly  dispirited  in  mind. 

Even  after  I  had  eaten  my  dinner  and  was  smok 
ing  at  my  ease  in  the  cheerfully  lighted  cabin,  sit 
ting  restfully  in  a  big  arm-chair  and  with  every 
sort  of  material  comfort  at  hand,  I  could  not  whip 
myself  up  to  hoping  again.  It  was  true  that  I  had 
not  exhausted  the  possibilities  of  finding  the  boat 
that  I  desired  so  eagerly,  for  my  search  along  the 
coast-line  had  extended  for  only  about  a  mile  each 
way ;  but  in  my  down-hearted  state  it  seemed  to 
me  that  my  search  had  gone  far  enough  to  settle 
definitely  that  what  I  wanted  was  not  to  be  found. 
And  this  brought  down  on  me  heavily  the  convic- 

234 


HOW   HOPE   DIED   OUT   OF   MY  HEART 

tion  that  my  prison — though  it  was  the  biggest,  I 
suppose,  that  ever  a  man  was  shut  up  in — must 
hold  me  fast  always:  and  with  that  feeling  in  it 
there  no  longer  was  room  for  hope  also  in  my 
heart. 


XXXII 

I    FALL    IN    WITH    A    FELLOW-PKISONER 

WHEN  I  had  finished  my  breakfast  the  next 
morning  I  faced  the  worst  thing  which  I  had  been 
forced  to  face  since  I  had  been  cast  prisoner  into 
the  Sargasso  Sea :  a  whole  day  of  idleness  without 
hope.  Until  then  there  had  not  been  an  hour- 
save  when  I  was  asleep — that  I  had  not  been  do 
ing  something  which  in  some  way  I  had  hoped 
would  better  my  condition  temporarily,  or  would 
tend  toward  my  deliverance.  But  that  morning  I 
was  without  such  spurs  to  effort  and  there  was  ab 
solutely  nothing  for  rne  to  do.  My  condition  could 
not  be  improved  by  making  my  home  on  another 
vessel ;  it  was  doubtful,  indeed,  if  in  all  the  wreck- 
pack  I  could  find  a  home  so  comfortable  and  so 
abundantly  stocked  with  the  best  provisions  as  I 
had  found  aboard  of  the  Ville  de  Saint  Eemy.  As 
for  working  farther  for  my  deliverance,  I  had  set 
that  behind  me  after  my  experience  during  the 
two  preceding  days.  And  so  I  brought  a  steamer- 
chair  out  on  the  deck  and  sat  in  it  smoking,  idle 
and  hopeless,  gazing  straight  out  before  me  with  a 

236 


I  FALL  IN  WITH  A  FELLOW-PRISONER 

dull  steadfastness  over  the  very  gently  undulating 
surface  of  the  weed-covered  sea. 

After  a  while,  tiring  of  sitting  still,  I  began  to 
pace  the  deck  slowly ;  and  I  was  so  heavy  with  my 
sorrow  that  I  could  not  think  clearly,  but  had  only 
in  my  mind  a  confused  feeling  that  I  was  taking 
the  first  of  a  series  of  walks  such  as  wild  animals 
imprisoned  take  endlessly  back  and  forth  behind 
the  bars  that  shut  them  in.  And  from  this  I  went 
on  to  thinking,  still  in  the  same  confused  way,  that 
the  wild  animals  at  least  were  not  outcast  in  their 
captivity — having  living  people  and  living  beasts 
around  them,  and  the  pleasure  of  hearing  living 
sounds — while  one  of  the  worst  things  about  my 
prison  was  the  absolute  dead  silence  that  hung 
over  it  like  a  dismal  cloud.  And  perhaps  it  was 
because  my  thoughts  happened  at  that  moment  to 
be  set  to  take  notice  of  such  matters  that  I  fancied 
I  heard  a  very  faint  sound  of  scratching  and  an  in 
stant  later  a  still  fainter  little  cry. 

I  was  standing  just  then  close  to  the  water-line 
on  the  deck  forward,  beside  a  covered  hatch  that 
seemed  to  lead  to  what  had  been,  the  quarters  of 
the  crew ;  and  it  was  from  beneath  this  hatch,  I 
was  certain,  that  the  sounds  came.  Slight  though 
the  noise  was,  it  greatly  startled  me  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  it  aroused  in  me  the  strangely-thrilling 
hope  that  there  possibly  might  be  a  living  man 
still  aboard  of  the  steamer  and  that  I  would  be  no 

237 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

longer  horribly  alone.  Yet  I  would  not  suffer  my 
self  too  much  to  give  room  to  this  happy  hope,  for 
the  little  faint  scratching — which  I  heard  again 
presently — was  not  the  sort  of  noise  that  a  man 
shut  in  would  be  likely  to  make ;  nor  did  the  little 
plaintive  sound  seem  like  a  human  cry.  But  the 
matter  was  one  to  be  investigated  in  a  hurry,  and 
with  an  energy  quite  astonishing,  in  comparison 
with  my  lassitude  of  a  moment  before,  I  got  the 
hatch  open  and  leaned  down  it,  listening ;  and  then 
I  heard  the  scratching  so  plainly  that  I  hurried 
down  the  stair. 

The  between-decks  was  well  enough  lighted  by 
a  good-sized  skylight,  and  the  place  that  I  had  got 
into  had  fixed  tables  set  in  it  and  seemed  to  be  the 
mess-room  of  the  crew.  Doors  opened  out  from  it 
both  fore  and  aft ;  and  from  behind  the  after  door 
— so  plainly  that  I  had  no  difficulty  in  placing  it- 
came  the  scratching  sound  that  I  was  pursuing: 
and  with  it  came  the  cries  again,  and  this  time  so 
distinctly  as  to  shatter  my  hope  of  finding  a  hu 
man  being  there,  but  at  the  same  time  to  make  me, 
for  all  my  sorrow,  almost  smile.  For  the  cry  was 
a  very  long  and  plaintive  m-i-i-a-a-u !  And  the  next 
moment,  when  I  had  the  door  open,  a  great  black 
cat  came  out  upon  me — so  overcome  with  delight 
at  meeting  a  human  being  again  that  he  was  al 
most  choking  with  his  gurgling  purr.  Indeed  the 
extravagant  joy  of  the  poor  lonely  creature  was  as 

238 


I  FALL  IN  WITH  A  FELLOW-PRISONER 

great  as  mine  would  have  been  had  I  found  a  man 
there — and  he  manifested  it  by  lunging  sidewise 
against  my  legs,  and  by  standing  up  on  his  hind 
paws  and  reaching  his  fore  paws  up  to  my  knees 
and  clutching  them,  and  then  with  a  spring  he 
climbed  right  up  me— all  the  while  choking  Avith 
his  great  gurgling  purring— and  was  not  satisfied 
until  he  found  himself  bundled  close  against  my 
breast  as  I  held  him  tight  in  my  arms.  And  on 
my  side— after  I  had  gulped  down  my  first  disap 
pointment  because  it  was  only  a  cat  who  was  my 
fellow-prisoner — I  was  as  glad  to  meet  him  as  he 
was  to  meet  me ;  and  I  am  not  ashamed  to  say 
that  I  fairly  cried  over  him — as  a  Avar  in  rush  of 
joy  Avent  over  me  at  finding  myself  at  last,  after 
being  for  so  long  a  time  surrounded  only  by  the 
dead,  in  the  company  of  a  living  creature ;  and  a 
creature  Avhich  showed  toAvard  me  by  every  means 
that  a  brute  beast  could  compass  its  gratitude  and 
its  lo\re. 

And  I  must  add  without  delay  that  my  cat's 
affection  for  me  Avas  Avholly  disinterested  ;  at  least, 
I  am  sure  that  he  loved  me — fro,m  the  first  mo 
ment  of  our  encounter — not  because  he  Avanted  me 
to  do  something  for  him,  but  because  he  longed, 
as  I  did,  for  human  companionship  and  Avas  filled 
up  Avith  happiness  because  he  had  found  again  a 
human  friend.  As  I  discovered  upon  inArestigation, 
his  prison  had  been  the  galley  in  Avhich  food  for 

239 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

the  crew  had  been  cooked  ;  and  upon  the  odds  and 
ends'  left  there  he  had  fared  very  well  indeed — not 
overeating  himself  by  gobbling  down  all  his  food 
in  a  hurry,  and  then  dying  of  starvation,  as  a  dog 
would  have  done,  but  temperately  eating  for  his 
daily  rations  only  what  his  sustenance  required ; 
and  for  drink  he  had  had  a  pot  partly  full  of  what 
had  been  hot  water  that  stood  upon  the  galley 
stove.  But  I  also  must  add  that  this  coarse  fare 
was  not  at  all  to  his  liking  ;  and  that  thereafter  he 
ordered  me  around  pretty  sharply,  in  his  own  way, 
and  insisted  always  upon  my  providing  him  with 
dainty  food. 

It  was  a  good  thing  for  the  cat,  certainly,  that  I 
had  found  him ;  for  his  stock  of  provisions  was 
pretty  nearly  exhausted,  and  in  a  little  while 
longer  he  would  have  come  to  a  dismal  end.  But 
my  finding  him  was  a  still  better  thing  for  me. 
When  I  first  heard  his  faint  little  scratching,  and 
his  still  fainter  plaintive  little  call  for  help,  I  was 
so  deep  in  my  despairing  melancholy  that  my  rea 
son  was  in  a  fair  way  to  go,  and  with  it  all  far 
ther  effort  on  my  part  to  set  myself  free.  From 
that  desperate  state  my  small  adventure  with  him 
roused  me,  which  was  a  good  deal  to  thank  him 
for ;  but  I  had  more  to  thank  him  for  still. 

In  the  little  time  that  I  had  been  aboard  of  the 
Ville  de  Saint  Remy—my  days  having  been  passed 
away  from  her — I  had  made  no  exploration  of  her 

240 


I  FALL  IN  WITH  A  FELLOW-PRISONER 

interior  beyond  her  cabin  and  the  region  in  which 
were  carried  her  cabin  stores;  which  latter  were 
so  abundant  as  to  set  me  at  my  ease  for  an  in 
definite  period  in  regard  to  food.  But  this  meet 
ing  with  my  fellow-prisoner  so  stirred  me  up,  and 
put  such  fresh  spirit  into  me,  that  I  began  to  think 
of  having  a  general  look  all  over  her :  that  I  might 
in  a  way  take  stock  of  my  belongings  and  at  the 
same  time  have  something  to  occupy  my  mind— 
for  I  knew  that  to  sit  do\vn  idly  again  would  be 
only  again  to  fall  b&ck  into  despair.  And  so,  my 
cat  going  with  me — and,  indeed,  making  a  good 
deal  of  a  convenience  of  me,  for  he  by  no  means 
would  walk  on  his  own  legs  but  insisted  upon 
jumping  up  on  my  shoulder  and  going  that  way  as 
a  passenger — I  set  off  on  my  round. 

As  well  as  I  could  make  out  from  what  I  found 
on  board  of  her — for  her  papers  either  had  been 
carried  away  or  were  stowed  in  some  place  which 
I  did  not  discover — the  Ville  de  Saint  jRemy  had 
been  bound  outward  to  some  colonial  port  and  car 
ried  a  cargo  of  general  stores.  When  I  got  her 
hatches  off — though  that  came  later — I  saw  in  one 
place  a  lot  of  wheelbarrows,  and  some  heavy  wag 
ons  stowed  with  their  wheels  inside  of  them,  and 
some  machinery  for  threshing  along  with  a  porta 
ble  steam-engine ;  and  in  another  place  were  boxes 
which  seemed  to  have  dry-goods  in  them,  and  a 
great  many  cases  of  wrines,  and  some  very  big 

Q  241 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

cases  that  evidently  contained  pianos — and  so  on 
with  a  great  lot  of  stuff  such  as  the  people  of  a 
flourishing  colony  would  be  likely  to  need. 

But  in  ray  round  that  morning  with  the  cat  on 
ray  shoulders — for  he  was  not  content  to  remain 
perched  on  one  of  them  quietly,  but  kept  passing 
from  one  to  the  other  with  affectionate  rubs  against 
the  back  of  ray  head,  and  all  the  while  purring  as 
hard  as  he  could  purr — I  did  not  get  below  the 
main-deck  except  into  the  engine-room,  my  attention 
being  given  to  finding  out  fully  what  the  steamer 
had  on  board  of  her  in  the  way  of  work-shops  and 
tools :  for  already,  with  my  renewed  cheerfulness, 
the  notion  was  beginning  to  take  hold  of  me  that 
I  might  set  to  work  and  build  a  boat  for  myself— 
and  so  make  what  I  could  not  find.  And,  indeed, 
I  don't  doubt  that  I  should  have  set  myself  to  this 
big  undertaking — for  the  appointments  of  the  ves 
sel  were  admirably  complete  and  everything  that  I 
wanted  for  ray  work  was  there — had  not  a  bigger, 
but  a  more  promising,  undertaking  presented  itself 
to  me  and  so  turned  my  efforts  into  another  way. 


XXXIII 
I    MAKE   A    GLAD    DISCOVEKY 

IT  was  directly  to  my  cat  that  I  owed  the  great 
piece  of  good  fortune  that  then  came  to  me  :  but  I 
must  confess  that  he  was  an  unwilling  agent  in  the 
matter,  and  probably  wished  himself  well  out  of  it, 
the  immediate  result  in  his  case  being  rather  a  bad 
squeeze  to  one  of  his  fore  paws. 

We  had  been  examining  the  machine-shop,  the 
cat  and  I,  and  whatever  his  views  about  it  may 
have  been  mine  were  of  great  satisfaction ;  for 
when  I  had  got  the  dead-lights  unscrewed  so  that 
I  could  see  well  about  me  I  had  been  delighted  by 
finding  there  everything  that  my  boat-building 
project  required.  Indeed,  I  almost  fancied  myself 
back  again  in  one  of  the  work-shops  of  the  Stevens 
Institute,  so  well  was  the  place  fitted  and  supplied 
— a  completeness  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
Ville  de  Saint  Remy  was  intended  for  long  voy 
ages  to  out-of-the-way  ports,  and  very  well  might 
have  to  depend  upon  her  own  resources  for  impor 
tant  repairs. 

It  was  as  we  were  leaving  the  machine-shop  to 
243 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

continue  our  round  of  investigations  that  my  cat 
suddenly  took  it  into  his  head  to  jump  down  from 
my  shoulders  and  stretch  his  own  legs  a  little ; 
and  away  he  scampered — being  much  given  to  such 
frisking  dashes,  as  I  later  discovered,  though  for 
the  next  week  or  so  after  that  one  he  went  limping 
on  three  legs  mighty  soberly — first  down  the  deck 
aft,  and  then  past  me  and  up  a  dark  passage  lead 
ing  toward  the  bows ;  and  I,  being  pretty  well  ac 
customed  to  cat  habits,  stood  waiting  until  he 
should  have  his  fun  out  and  so  come  back  again 
with  a  miau  by  way  of  "  if  you  please  "  to  be  taken 
up  into  my  arms.  But  he  did  not  come  back  in  any 
great  hurry,  and  off  in  the  darkness  I  could  hear 
his  paws  padding  about  briskly;  and  then  there 
was  silence  for  a  moment ;  and  then  he  broke  out 
into  a  loud  miauling  which  showed  that  he  was  in 
trouble  of  some  sort  and  also  in  pain. 

As  there  was  no  helping  him  until  I  could  see 
what  was  the  matter  with  him,  I  hurried  first  into 
the  machine-shop  for  a  wrench,  and  then  went  for 
ward  into  that  dark  place  cautiously — until  by  a 
glint  of  light  on  the  ship's  side  I  made  out  where 
a  port  was,  and  so  got  loose  the  deadlight  and  could 
look  around.  What  I  saw  was  my  poor  cat  in  such 
a  pickle  that  I  did  not  in  the  least  blame  him  for 
crying  out  about  it ;  he  having,  as  it  seemed,  made 
an  unlucky  jump  upon  some  small  bars  of  iron 
which  were  lying  loose  and  disorderly,  with  the 

244 


I  MAKE   A   GLAD   DISCOVERY 

one  on  which  he  landed  balanced  so  nicely  that  it 
had  turned  suddenly  and  jammed  fast  his  paw. 
And  so  he  was  anchored  there  very  painfully,  and 
was  telling  what  he  thought  about  it  in  the  most 
piercing  yowls. 

Fortunately  it  was  an  easy  matter  to  let  him 
loose  from  the  trap  that  he  had  got  into ;  but  even 
while  I  was  doing  it — and  before  I  picked  him  up 
to  look  at  his  hurt  and  to  comfort  him — I  gave  a 
shout  of  delight  on  my  own  account  that  was  a 
good  deal  louder  than  any  of  my  poor  cat's  yells 
of  pain.  For  there  before  me  was  a  very  stout- 
looking  and  large  steam-launch  —  thirty -two  feet 
over  all,  as  I  found  when  I  came  to  measure  her — 
stowed  snugly  in  a  cradle  set  athwart-ship  and 
looking  all  ready  to  be  put  overboard  into  the  sea. 
And  at  finding  in  this  unexpected  fashion  what  I 
had  been  so  long  looking  for,  and  had  quite  done 
with  hoping  for,  it  is  no  wonder  that  I  shouted 
with  joy. 

My  cat  coming  limping  to  me  to  be  pitied  and 
cared  for,  holding  up  his  pinched  paw  and  with 
little  miaus  asking  for  my  sympathy  quite  like  a 
Christian,  I  had  first  of  all  to  give  him  my  atten 
tion.  But  his  hurt  was  not  a  very  serious  one— 
the  flesh  not  being  cut,  and  no  bones  broken — and 
when  I  had  comforted  him  as  well  as  I  could,  until 
I  got  him  soothed  a  little,  I  put  him  down  out  of 
my  arms  that  I  might  examine  carefully  my  great 

245 


IN   THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

prize ;  but  first  of  all  opening  all  the  ports  so  that 
I  might  have  plenty  of  light  for  what  I  wanted 
to  do. 

Coming  to  this  deliberate  survey,  I  found  that 
the  launch  truly  enough  was  complete,  but  that 
she  was  very  far  from  being  ready  to  take  the  wa 
ter  ;  for  while  all  her  parts  were  there — and  even 
duplicates  of  her  more  important  pieces,  in  readi 
ness  against  a  break-down — most  of  her  fittings 
and  all  of  her  machinery  was  lying  inside  of  her 
boxed  for  transportation  ;  being  arranged  that  way, 
I  suppose,  because  she  would  have  been  far  too 
heavy  to  swing  into  the  snug  place  where  I  found 
her  and  out  again  with  everything  bolted  fast.  She 
was  a  very  beautiful  little  boat,  evidently  intended 
for  a  pleasure  craft — but  very  strong  and  seaworthy, 
too ;  and  it  no  doubt  was  to  keep  her  in  good  order 
for  delivery  that  she  had  been  stowed  between- 
decks  for  the  long  voyage.  Indeed,  only  with  a 
steam-winch  and  a  good  many  men  to  handle  her, 
could  she  have  been  got  down  there ;  and  the  first 
of  my  uncomfortable  thoughts  about  her,  of  the 
many  that  I  had  first  and  last,  came  while  I  was 
taking  stock  of  her  equipment — as  I  fell  to  wonder 
ing  how  in  the  world  I  should  manage,  with  only 
a  cat  to  help  me,  ever  to  get  her  overboard  into 
the  sea. 

As  to  assembling  her  parts,  and  so  making  her 
ready  for  cruising,  I  had  no  doubts  whatever. 

240 


I  MAKE   A   GLAD   DISCOVERY 

That  piece  of  work  was  directly  in  the  line  of  my 
training  and  I  felt  entirely  secure  about  it ;  but  even 
on  that  score  I  quaked  a  good  deal  at  the  size  of 
the  contract  to  be  taken  by  a  single  pair  of  hands, 
and  at  thought  of  the  long,  long  while  that  would 
be  required  to  carry  it  through.  Yet  the  hope  that 
came  with  finding  this  boat  put  such  heart  into 
me  that  my  spirits  did  not  go  down  far.  Working 
on  her — aside  from  the  pleasure  that  any  man  with 
a  natural  love  for  mechanics  finds  in  serious  and 
difficult  labor  with  his  hands — would  be  a  constant 
delight  to  me  because  of  what  it  would  be  leading 
to;  and  in  every  moment  of  my  work  I  would 
have  to  sustain  me  the  thought  that  each  rivet  set 
in  place  and  each  bolt  fastened  brought  me  appre 
ciably  nearer  to  being  set  free. 

Having  cursorily  finished  with  the  boat,  I  con 
tinued  my  survey  to  her  surroundings ;  that  I  might 
plan  roughly  my  scheme  of  work  upon  her,  and 
that  I  might  plan  also  for  getting  her  launched 
when  my  work  upon  her  should  be  done.  She  was 
stowed  on  the  main-deck — in  a  place  that  probably 
was  intended  for  the  use  of  third-class  passengers, 
when  such  were  carried — and  tlie  machine-shop 
was  so  close  to  her  that  in  the  matter  of  fetching 
tools  and  so  on  my  steps  would  be  well  saved.  Di 
rectly  over  her  was  the  forward  hatch;  through 
which  she  had  been  lowered  and  set  in  place  in  the 
cradle  previously  made  ready  for  her,  and  there 

247 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

fixed  firm  and  fast.  For  a  moment  I  had  the  fancy 
that  I  might  get  up  steam  to  work  the  donkey- 
engine  and  so  hoist  her  out  again  by  that  same 
way,  and  overboard  too.  But  a  very  little  reflec 
tion  showed  me  that  this  airily  formed  plan  must 
be  abandoned,  as  all  my  work  on  her  then  would 
have  to  be  done  far  away  from  the  machine-shop 
and  with  the  additional  disadvantage  that  through 
the  long  time  that  certainly  must  pass  before  I 
could  get  her  finished  she  would  lie  open  to  the 
daily  heavy  rains.  And  then  I  had  the  much  more 
reasonable  notion  —  though  the  amount  of  extra 
labor  that  it  involved  was  not  encouraging  to  con 
template — that  I  would  do  my  work  on  her  where 
she  lay ;  and  when  I  had  finished  her  that  I  would 
cut  loose  a  sufficient  number  of  plates  from  the 
side  of  the  steamer  to  make  a  hole  big  enough  to 
get  her  overboard  that  way. 

But  having  the  hatch  directly  over  where  she 
was  lying,  though  I  could  not  get  her  up  through 
it,  made  my  undertaking  a  good  deal  easier  and 
more  comfortable  for  me.  Even  with  all  the  ports 
open  I  would  have  had  but  little  light  to  work  by ; 
and,  what  was  of  even  more  importance  in  that  hot 
misty  region,  I  would  have  had  little  fresh  air — and 
still  less  when  I  had  set  a-going  my  forge.  But 
with  the  hatch  off  I  could  have  all  the  light  that  I 
needed  and  as  much  fresh  air  as  was  to  be  had — 
with  the  advantage  that  the  hatch  could  be  set  in 

248 


I  MAKE   A   GLAD   DISCOVERY 

place  every  night  when  I  went  off  duty  and  not. 
opened  again  in  the  morning  until  the  rain  was  at 
an  end :  so  preserving  my  machinery  against  the 
rust  that  pretty  much  would  have  ruined  it — for 
all  that  it  was  well  tallowed — had  my  slow  build 
ing  gone  on  in  the  open  air. 

My  preliminary  investigations  being  thus  wrell 
ended,  and  the  morning  ended  too,  I  piped  all  hands 
to  dinner;  that  is  to  say,  I  whistled  to  my  cat — 
who  had  been  sitting  still  and  watching  me  pretty 
solemnly,  his  friskiness  being  for  the  time  taken 
out  of  him  by  the  pain  in  his  paw — and  Avhen  he 
perceived  that  I  was  paying  some  attention  to  him 
again  he  came  limping  to  me  on  his  three  good 
legs  and  said  with  a  miau  that  if  I  pleased  he  would 
prefer  going  to  his  dinner  in  my  arms.  And  when 
I  picked  him  up — as,  indeed,  I  had  to,  for  he  posi 
tively  insisted  upon  my  carrying  him — he  forgot 
about  his  hurt  and  fell  to  purring  to  me  at  a  great 
rate  and  to  making  little  gentle  thrusts  against  my 
arm  with  the  fore  paw  that  was  sound.  And  so 
we  went  aft  in  great  friendship  and  contentment 
and  had  a  gay  dinner  together :  the  cat  sitting  on 
the  table  opposite  to  me  with  all  possible  decorum 
— but  manifesting  his  daintiness  by  refusing  to  eat 
anything  but  tinned  chicken,  and  only  the  white 
meat  at  that ! 


XXXIV 

I    END    A    GOOD   JOB    WELL,  AND    GET    A    SET-BACK 

WHEN  my  meal  was  finished  I  set  myself  first 
of  all  to  getting  off  the  hatch  beneath  which  my 
boat  lay ;  and  this  proved  to  be  a  bigger  job  than 
I  had  counted  upon — each  of  its  sections  being  so 
heavy  that  I  could  not  manage  it  without  tackle,  and 
even  with  tackle  the  work  took  me  a  good  hour. 
My  plan  of  operations  had  included  removing  the 
hatch  every  morning  and  setting  it  back  again 
every  night,  but  when  I  found  how  much  energy 
and  time  would  be  wasted  in  that  way  I  changed 
my  front  a  little  and  got  at  the  same  result  along 
another  line.  All  that  I  needed  was  a  covering  for 
the  hatch  that  would  keep  the  rain  out ;  and  what 
I  did,  therefore,  was  to  knock  together  a  light  grat 
ing  of  wood  to  fit  over  it  —  sloping  the  grating 
downward  on  each  side  from  a  sort  of  a  ridge  pole 
— on  which  a  tarpaulin  could  be  stretched  ;  and  in 
that  way  I  got  shortly  to  a  water-tight  covering 
for  my  hatch  that  I  could  shift  back  and  forth 
quickly  and  without  any  trouble  at  all.  But  the 
whole  of  what  remained  of  the  afternoon  was  spent 

250 


A   GOOD   JOB,  AND   A   SET-BACK 

in  getting  that  piece  of  preliminary  work  finished 
to  my  mind. 

The  next  morning  I  set  myself  to  the  examina 
tion  of  the  stuff  stowed  in  the  boat — the  several 
parts  which  I  would  have  to  put  together  in  order 
to  make  my  craft  ready  for  the  sea — and  for  this 
job  also  a  great  deal  of  preliminary  arrangement 
was  required.  Many  of  the  pieces — as  the  boiler, 
the  cylinder,  the  shaft,  the  screw,  and  the  sections 
of  the  cabin — were  too  heavy  for  me  to  lift  with 
out  tackle  ;  and  as  they  all  had  to  be  got  out  and 
arranged  in  order  ready  for  use,  and  then  in  due 
course  put  aboard  the  boat  one  at  a  time  in  their 
proper  places,  I  first  of  all  had  to  set  up  some 
sort  of  lifting  apparatus  to  take  the  place  of  a 
crane. 

In  this  matter  the  open  hatch  directly  over  the 
boat  again  was  a  help  to  me.  Across  it,  running 
fore  and  aft,  I  stretched  a  heavy  wire  rope  on 
which  I  had  placed  a  big  block  for  a  traveller,  and 
carrving  the  end  of  the  rope  forward  to  the  capstan 
I  fell  to  work  with  the  hand-bars  and  got  it  strained 
so  taut  that  it  was  like  a  bar  of  iron.  Then  to  the 
traveller  block  I  made  fast  my  '  hoisting  tackle 
— and  so  was  able  to  swing  up  the  heavy  pieces 
from  where  they  were  stowed,  and  to  run  them 
along  the  taut  rope  until  they  were  clear  of  the 
boat  on  either  side,  and  then  to  let  them  down 
upon  the  deck :  where  they  would  remain  until  a 

251 


IN    THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

reversal  of  this  process  would  lift  them  up  again 
and  set  them  in  place  as  they  were  required.  But 
even  with  my  tackle  —  and  double  tackle  in  the 
case  of  the  heavier  pieces — this  was  a  back-break 
ing  job  that  took  up  the  whole  of  three  days. 

However,  I  finished  it  at  last,  and  had  the  boat 
clear  and  all  the  pieces  so  arranged  that  as  I  need 
ed  them  they  would  be  ready  to  my  hand ;  and  the 
examination  that  I  was  able  to  make  of  them,  and 
of  the  boat  too  after  I  had  her  empty,  gave  very 
satisfactory  results.  All  the  parts  were  there,  and 
all  numbered  so  carefully  that  they  could  have  been 
assembled  by  much  less  skilful  hands  than  mine; 
while  the  hull  of  the  boat  was  completely  finished, 
and  the  sockets  and  rivet-holes  for  attaching  her 
fittings  were  all  as  they  should  be  in  her  frame. 
Farther,  I  could  see  by  the  little  scratches  here  and 
there  on  her  iron-work  that  she  had  been  set  up 
and  then  taken  apart  again ;  and  so  was  sure  that 
all  was  smooth  for  her  coming  together  in  the  rig-lit 

Q  O  O 

way.  But,  for  all  that  I  had  such  plain  sailing  be 
fore  me  in  the  actual  work  of  refitting  her,  my 
courage  went  down  a  little  as  I  perceived  what  a 
big  contract  I  had  taken,  and  what  a  very  long 
time  must  pass  before  I  could  pull  it  through. 

Moreover,  I  saw  that  while  the  boat  was  well 
built  for  pleasure  cruising  in  smooth  water — and, 
indeed,  was  so  stout  in  her  frame  that  she  would 
stand  a  great  deal  of  knocking  about  without  be- 

252 


A  GOOD   JOB,  AND   A   SET-BACK 

ing  the  worse  for  it — she  by  no  means  was  pre 
pared  for  the  chances  of  an  ocean  voyage.  Except 
where  her  little  cabin  and  engine-room  would  be 
— the  two  filling  about  half  of  her  length  amid 
ships — she  was  entirely  open ;  and  while  the  frame 
of  her  cabin  was  stoutly  built,  that  part  of  it  in 
tended  to  rise  above  the  rail  was  arranged  for  slid 
ing  glass  windows — which  would  be  smashed  in  a 
moment  by  a  heavy  dash  of  sea.  It  was  clear, 
therefore,  that  in  addition  to  setting  her  up  on  the 
lines  planned  for  her — a  big  job  and  a  long  job  to 
start  with — there  was  a  lot  more  for  me  to  do.  To 
fit  her  for  my  purposes  it  would  be  necessary  to 
cover  her  cabin  windows  with  planking ;  to  deck 
her  over  forward  in  order  to  have  my  stores  under 
cover  as  well  as  to  guard  against  shipping  enough 
water  to  swamp  her  in  rough  weather  ;  and  finally 
to  rig  her  with  a  mast  and  sail  upon  which  to  fall 
back  for  motive-power  in  the  event  of  my  running 
out  of  coal.  This  additional  work  would  not,  in 
one  way,  present  any  difficulties — it  being  in  itself 
simple  and  easy  of  accomplishment ;  but  in  another 
way  it  was  not  pleasant  to  contemplate,  since  the 
doing  of  it  all  single-handed  would  increase  very 
greatly  the  time  which  must  pass  before  I  could 
start  upon  my  voyage.  However,  as  consideration 
of  that  phase  of  the  matter '  only  tended  to  dis 
courage  me,  I  put  it  out  of  sight  as  well  as  I  was 
able  and  set  myself  with  a  will  to  finishing  my  pre- 
253 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

liminary  work — of  which  there  still  was  a  good 
deal  to  do. 

The  steamer's  machine-shop,  as  I  have  said,  was 
unusually  well  fitted  and  supplied  ;  but  even  in  the 
short  time  that  the  vessel  had  been  lying  aban 
doned  in  that  reeking  atmosphere  rust  had  so 
coated  everything  not  shut  up  in  lockers  that  all 
the  tools  in  the  racks  and  the  fittings  of  the  lathe 
—although  the  lathe  had  an  oil-cloth  hood  over  it 
—had  to  be  cleaned  before  they  could  be  used  :  a 
job  that  kept  me  busy  with  the  grind-stone,  and 
emery-cloth,  and  oiled  cotton-waste,  for  a  good 
long  while.  And  after  that  I  had  to  get  the  forge 
in  order,  and  to  bring  up  fuel  for  it  from  the  coal 
bunkers.  And  in  attending  to  all  these  various  mat 
ters  the  time  slipped  away  so  quickly  that  a  whole 
week  had  passed  before  I  had  done. 

But  I  must  say  that  as  the  cat  and  I  labored 
together — though  his  labors  were  confined  to  cheer 
ing  me  by  following  me  about  on  three  legs  where- 
ever  I  went,  and  pretty  much  all  the  while  talking 
to  me  in  his  way  so  that  I  should  not  fail  to  take 
notice  of  him — I  got  more  and  more  light-hearted; 
which  was  natural  enough,  seeing  that  what  I  was 
doing  in  itself  interested  me  and  so  made  the  time 
pass  quickly,  and  that  I  had  also  a  great  swelling 
under-current  of  hope  as  I  thought  of  what  my 
slow-going  work  would  bring  me  to  in  the  end. 

"When  at  last  I  fairly  got  started  at  my  building 

254 


A   GOOD   JOB,  AND  A   SET-BACK 

I  was  in  a  still  more  cheerful  mood — there  being 
such  a  sense  of  definite  accomplishment  as  I  set 
each  piece  in  its  place,  and  such  a  comfort  in  the 
tangible  advance  that  I  was  making,  that  half  the 
time  I  was  singing  as  I  made  my  bolts  and  rivets 
fast.  But  for  all  my  cheerfulness  I  had  a  plenty 
of  trouble  over  what  I  was  doing ;  and  I  was  sorry 
enough  that  I  had  not  somebody  beside  my  cat  to 
help  me,  or  that  I  myself  had  not  another  pair  or 
two  of  hands. 

Almost  at  the  start,  when  I  began  to  swing  the 
pieces  of  machinery  inboard,  I  found  that  I  had 
still  another  bit  of  preliminary  work  to  attend  to 
before  I  could  go  on.  My  travelling  tackle  cross 
ing  the  boat  amidships  had  worked  well  enough  in 
getting  the  stuff  out  of  her,  but  when  I  came  to 
hoisting  the  parts  aboard  and  setting  them  exactly 
in  their  places,  and  holding  them  steacly  while  I 
made  fast  the  rivets,  it  would  not  in  any  way  serve 
my  turn.  What  I  had  to  do  was  to  stretch  another 
Avire  rope  across  the  hatch — at  right  angles  with 
and  a  couple  of  feet  above  the  first  one,  and  par 
allel  with  the  boat's  keel — and  to  rig  on  this  two 
travellers,  to  one  or  the  other  of  which  I  could 
transfer  each  piece  as  I  got  it  inboard  and  so  run 
it  along  until  I  had  it  exactly  over  the  place  where 
it  was  to  be  made  fast.  But  I  was  a  whole  day  in 
attending  to  this  matter — and  it  was  only  one  of 
the  many  makeshifts  to  which  I  had  to  resort  to 

255 


IN   THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

accomplish  what  was  too  much  for  my  unaided 
strength  ;  and  in  meeting  such  like  side  difficulties 
I  lost  in  all  a  good  many  days. 

But  though  my  work  went  very  slowly,  and  now 
and  then  was  stopped  short  for  a  while  by  some 
obstacle  that  had  to  be  overcome  in  any  rough  and 
ready  way  that  I  could  think  of,  I  did  get  on; 
and  at  last  I  had  my  boat  together  on  the  lines 
that  her  builders  had  planned.  Yet  while,  in  a 
way,  she  was  finished,  there  still  was  a  weary  lot 
to  do  to  her  to  fit  her  for  my  purposes;  and  in 
decking  her  over,  and  in  making  her  cabin  solid, 
and  in  fitting  a  mast  and  sail  to  her,  I  spent  almost 
two  months  more. 

All  this  work  went  slowly  because  I  had  to 
spend  nearly  as  much  time  in  making  ready  for 
what  I  wanted  to  do  as  in  doing  it.  Before  I  be 
gan  my  planking  I  had  to  rip  up  from  the  steam 
er's  deck  the  material  for  it ;  and  this  was  a  hard 
job  in  itself  and  did  not  give  me  what  I  wanted  when 
it  was  done — for  while  the  stuff  served  well  enough 
for  my  beams  and  braces  it  was  clumsily  heavy  for 
the  decking  of  my  little  launch.  But  it  had  to  an 
swer,  and  in  the  end  I  got  it  well  in  place  and  the 
joints  so  tightly  caulked  that  I  was  sure  of  having 
a  dry  hold.  And  that  my  deck  might  the  more 
easily  turn  the  water  in  a  sea  way  I  made  it  flush 
with  the  rail ;  and  I  had  no  hatch  in  it — arranging 
to  get  to  the  hold  by  a  scuttle  that  I  set  in  the  for- 

256 


A   GOOD   JOB,  AND   A  SET-BACK 

ward  end  of  the  cabin — and  that  gave  me  a  still 
better  chance  of  keeping  dry  below. 

For  my  mast  I  got  down  one  of  the  top-gallant 
masts — and  I  had  a  close  shave  to  coming  down 
with  it  and  so  ending  my  adventures  right  there. 
The  best  way  that  I  could  think  of  to  manage  this 
piece  of  work — and  I  have  not  since  thought  of 
any  way  better — was  to  make  fast  a  line  to  the 
lower  end  of  the  top-gallant  mast  just  above  the 
cap  of  the  topmast  and  to  carry  this  line  through 
the  top-block  and  so  down  to  the  deck,  and  there 
to  pass  it  through  another  block  to  the  capstan  and 
haul  it  taut  and  stop  it ;  and  when  all  that  was  in 
order,  and  the  stays  cut,  to  get  up  into  the  cross- 
trees  and  saw  through  the  spar  just  below  where  I 
had  whipped  it  with  my  line.  My  expectation  was 
that  as  the  spar  parted  and  fell  it  would  be  held 
hanging  by  my  tackle  until  I  could  get"  down  to 
the  deck  again  and  lower  it  away ;  and  that  really 
was  what  did  happen— only  as  it  fell  there  was  a 
bit  of  slack  line  to  take  up,  and  this  gave  such  a 
tremendous  jerk  to  the  cross-trees  that  I  was  with 
in  an  ace  of  being  shaken  out  of  them  and  of  going 
down  to  the  deck  with  a  bang.  >But  I  didn't— 
which  is  the  main  thing — and  I  did  get  my  mast. 
It  was  a  good  deal  heavier  than  my  boat  could 
stand,  and  I  had  to  spend  a  couple  of  days  in  tak 
ing  it  down  with  a  broad-axe  and  in  finishing  it 
with  a  plane  until  I  got  it  as  it  should  be ;  and 

R  257 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

from  the  flag-staff  at  the  steamer's  stern  I  got  out 
with  very  little  trouble  a  good  boom  and  gaff. 

After  that  I  had  only  my  sail  to  fit ;  and  as  I 
did  not  trouble  myself  to  make  a  very  neat  job  of 
it  this  did  not  take  me  long.  Indeed,  I  grudged 
the  time  that  I  spent  on  my  mast  and  sail — close 
upon  a  fortnight,  altogether — more  than  any  like 
amount  of  time  that  I  gave  to  my  task  ;.  for  my 
hope  was  strong  that  I  would  not  need  a  sail  at  all, 
but  would  be  able  to  manage— by  a  way  that  I 
had  thought  of — to  carry  enough  coal  with  me  to 
make  my  voyage  under  steam.  But  I  was  not 
leaving  anything  to  chance  —  so  far  as  chances 
could  be  foreseen  —  in  the  adventure  that  I  was 
about  to  make,  and  so  I  got  my  sail-power  all  ready 
to  fall  back  upon  in  case  my  steam-power  failed. 
And  when  that  bit  of  work  was -finished  I  was  full 
of  a  joyful  light-heartedness  ;  for  my  boat  in  every 
way  was  ready  for  the  water,  and  I  was  come  at 
last  to  the  good  ending  of  my  long  job. 

That  night  I  made  a  feast  in  celebration  of  what 
I  had  accomplished,  and  in  hope  of  my  greater 
good  fortune  that  I  believed  was  soon  to  come— 
with  a  place  duly  set  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
table  for  my  only  guest,  and  with  a  champagne- 
glass  beside  his  plate  to  hold  his  unsweetened  con 
densed  milk  (for  which,  when  I  found  it  among  the 
ship's  stores,  he  manifested  a  strong  partiality) 
that  he  might  lap  properly  his  responses  to  the 

258 


A  GOOD    JOB,  AND   A   SET-BACK 

toasts  which  I  pledged  him  in  champagne.  And  I 
don't  suppose  that  a  man  and  a  cat  ever  had  a  mer 
rier  meal  anywhere  than  we  had  in  that  queer 
place  for  it  that  evening  ;  nor  that  any  two  friends 
ever  were  happier  together  than  we  were  when, 
our  feast  being  ended,  he  went  through  his  various 
tricks— of  which  he  had  learned  a  great  many,  and 
with  a  wonderful  quickness,  after  his  paw  got  well 
—and  then  settled  himself  for  a  snooze  on  my  lap 
while  I  sat  smoking  my  cigar  and  thinking  that  at 
last  I  had  saws  through  my  prison  bars. 

And  it  was  while  I  was  sitting  in  that  state  of 
placid  happiness  that  suddenly  I  was  brought  up 
all  standing  by  the  reflection— and  why  it  had  not 
come  sooner  to  me  is  a  mystery  —  that  a  dozen 
turns  of  the  screw  of  my  launch  in  that  weed-cov 
ered  ocean  would  be  enough  to  foul  it  hopelessly, 
and  so  at  the  very  start  to  cut  short  the  voyage 
under  steam  that  I  had  planned. 


XXXV 

I    AM    READY    FOR    A    FEESH    HAZARD    OF    FORTUNE 

FOR  a  while  after  this  black  thought  came  to  me 
I  was  pretty  much  beaten  by  it ;  but  when  I  got 
steadier— and  had  finished  kicking  myself  for  a 
fool  because  I  had  not  foreseen  it  all  along— I  per 
ceived  that  the  odds  were  not  wholly  against  me, 
after  all.  I  had,  at  least,  a  sea-worthy  boat  in 
which  to  make  my  venture,  and  therefore  was  as 
well  off  as  I  had  hoped  to  be  when  I  had  set  about 
looking  for  one ;  and  if  the  plan  that  I  had  formed 
worked  out  in  practice — if  I  could  manage  to  force 
a  passage  through  the  tangle  by  alternately  work 
ing  over  the  bow  of  my  boat  to  break  up  the  weed, 
and  over  the  sides  to  pole  my  boat  forward — I  was 
a  great  deal  better  off  than  I  had  hoped  to  be :  for 
should  I  win  my  way  to  open  water  I  would  have 
steam  as  well  as  sail  power  at  my  command. 

But  while  this  more  reasonable  view  of  the  situa 
tion  comforted  me,  it  did  not  satisfy  me.  The  diffi 
culty  of  working  myself  along  in  that  slow  fashion 
I  foresaw  would  be  so  enormous  that  I  very  well 
might  die  of  sheer  exhaustion  before  I  got  clear  of 

260 


A  FRESH  HAZARD  OF  FORTUNE 

the  weed-tangle — which  must  extend  outward,  as  I 
knew  from  my  guess  at  the  time  that  I  had  taken 
in  drifting  in  through  it,  for  a  very  long  way. 
What  I  had  been  counting  upon  ever  since  I  had 
found  the  launch  was  in  having  part  of  the  work, 
and  the  heaviest  part,  done  by  her  engine ;  my 
part  to  be  the  breaking  of  a  passage,  while  the  mo 
tive  power  was  to  be  supplied  by  the  screw.  But  of 
course  if  the  screw  fouled,  as  it  certainly  would 
foul  with  the  loose  weed  all  around  it,  that  would 
be  the  end  of  my  hopeful  plan. 

This  consideration  of  the  matter  reduced  it  to 
a  definite  problem.  What  was  needed  was  some 
sort  of  protection  for  the  screw  that  would  keep 
the  weed  away  from  it  and  yet  would  allow  it  to 
work  freely :  and,  having  the  case  thus  clearly 
stated,  the  thought  presently  occurred  to  me  that 
I  could  secure  this  protection  by  building  out  from 
the  stern  of  the  boat,  so  that  the  screw  would  be 
enclosed  in  it,  some  sort  of  an  iron  cage.  That  ar 
rangement,  I  conceived,  would  meet  the  require 
ments  of  the  case  fully ;  and  being  come  to  my 
conclusion  I  resigned  myself  to  still  another  long 
delay  while  I  carried  my  plan  into  execution,  and 
so  went  to  bed  at  last  hopefully — but  well  know 
ing  that  this  fresh  piece  of  work  that  1  had  cut  out 
for  myself  would  be  hard  to  do. 

I  certainly  did  not  overestimate  the  amount  of 
labor  involved  in  my  cage-building.  I  was  a  good 

261 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

three  weeks  over  it.  But  I  was  kept  up  to  the 
collar  by  my  conviction  that  without  the  cage  I 
had  no  chance  of  succeeding  in  my  project ;  and 
so  I  got  it  finished  at  last.  And  then  I  considered 
that  my  boat  realty  was  ready  to  take  the  water ; 
and  the  cat  and  I  had  another  banquet  in  celebra 
tion  of  the  long  step  that  we  had  taken  toward  our 
deliverance — only  this  time  I  did  not  give  an  alto 
gether  free  rein  to  my  rejoicing,  being  feaHul  that 
some  other  difficulty  might  present  itself  suddenly 
and  bring  me  up  again  with,  a  round  turn. 

The  boat  being  ready — for  I  could  think  of  noth 
ing  more  to  do  to  her — I  had  still  to  launch  her,  and 
the  first  step  toward  that  end  was  breaking  out  a 
section  in  the  steamer's  side.  Luckily  the  stock  of 
cold-chisels  aboard  the  Ville  de  Saint  Remy  was  a 
good  one ;  but  I  dulled  them  all  twice  over — and 
weary  work  at  the  grindstone  I  had  sharpening 
them  again — before  I  had  chipped  away  the  bind 
ings  of  those  endless  rivets  and  had  the  satisfac 
tion  of  seeing  the  big  section  of  iron  plate  between 
two  of  her  iron  ribs  pitch  outboard  and  splash 
down  through  the  weed  into  the  sea. 

As  I  have  said,  the  bow  compartment  of  the 
steamer  was  full  of  water,  and  this  brought  her 
main-deck  so  low  down  forward  that  the  boat  had 
only  to  be  slid  out  almost  on  a  level  through  the 
hole  that  I  had  made.  But  to  slide  her  that  way 
—which  seems  eas}r,  because  I  have  happened  to 

262 


A  FRESH  HAZARD  OF  FORTUNE 

put  it  glibly — was  quite  a  different  thing.  With 
steam  po\ver  to  work  the  capstan  I  could  have  got 
the  boat  overboard  in  no  time  ;  but  without  steam 
power  the  launching  went  desperately  slowly,  and 
was  altogether  the  hardest  piece  of  work  that  I 
had  to  do  in  the  whole  of  my  long  hard  job. 

The  boat  had  stood  all  along  in  the  cradle  that 
had  been  built  to  hold  her  steady  for  the  voyage. 
This  was  a  very  stout  wooden  framework  built  up 
from  two  heavy  beams  joined  by  cross-pieces,  and 
all  so  well  bolted  together  that  it  was  very  solid 
and  firm.  In  this  the  boat  rested  snugly  and  was 
held  fast  by  rope  lashings ;  and  the  cradle  itself— 
resting  on  the  lower  hatch  and  projecting  on  each 
side  of  it — was  lashed  to  the  hatch  ringbolts  so  as 
to  be  safe  against  shifting  in  a  heavy  sea.  I  could 
have  removed  the  cradle  by  taking  it  to  pieces,  but 
that  would  not  have  helped  matters ;  and  the  plan 
that  I  decided  upon — liking  it  better  because  all 
this  wood- work  around  and  under  the  boat  would 
protect  her  from  harm  as  she  went  overboard— 
was  to  weight  the  cradle  with  iron  bars  that  would 
cause  it  to  sink  away  from  beneath  the  boat  when 
they  took  the  water,  and  then  to,  work  it  up  with 
jack-screws  until  I  could  get  rollers  under  it  and  so 
send  them  both  together  over  the  side. 

How  long  I  worked  over  this  job  I  really  do  not 
know ;  but  I  do  know  that  at  the  time  it  seemed 
as  though  it  never  would  come  to  an  end.  First  of 

263 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

all  I  had  the  rollers  to  make  from  another  topgal 
lant  mast  that  I  got  down,  and  when  these  were 
finished  I  had  to  go  at  the  frame  of  the  cradle  with 
a  pair  of  jack-screws  and  raise  it,  by  fractions  of 
an  inch,  until  I  could  get  my  rollers  under  it  one 
at  a  time.  I  think  that  it  was  the  deadly  dullness 
of  this  jack-screw  work  that  I  most  resented — the 
stupid  monotony  of  doing  precisely  the  same  sort 
of  utterly  wearying  work  all  day  long  and  for  day 
after  day.  But  in  the  end  I  got  it  finished :  all  my 
rollers  properly  in  place,  and  the  cradle  made  fast  to 
hold  it  from  starting  before  I  was  ready  to  have  it 
go — although  of  that  there  was  not  much  danger, 
for  while  the  steamer  had  a  decided  pitch  forward 
she  lay  on  an  even  keel. 

At  first  I  was  for  sending  my  boat  overboard 
the  minute  that  I  got  the  last  roller  under  her  ;  but 
I  had  the  sense,  luckily,  to  take  a  reef  in  this  brisk 
intention  as  the  thought  struck  me  that  I  must  have 
open  water  to  launch  her  in  or  else  very  likely 
have  boat  and  cradle  together  stuck  fast  in  the 
wreed.  And  so  I  set  myself  to  clearing  a  little  pool 
into  which  I  could  launch  her;  and  as  I  carried 
this  work  on  I  carne  quickly  to  a  realizing  sense  of 
what  was  before  me  when  I  should  begin  to  break 
a  way  through  the  weed  for  my  boat's  passage,  and 
to  the  conviction  that  had  I  tried  to  make  my  voy 
age  without  steam  to  help  me  I  never  should  have 
got  through  at  all. 

264 


A  FRESH  HAZARD  OF  FORTUNE 

In  point  of  fact,  the  weed  was  so  thick  and  so 
firmly  matted  together  that  I  almost  could  walk 
on  it ;  and  when  I  had  knocked  loose  a  couple  of 
doors  from  their  hinges  and  had  thrown  them  over 
board — taking  two,  so  that  I  might  move  one  ahead 
of  the  other  as  my  cutting  advanced — I  had  firm 
enough  standing  place  from  which  I  could  slash 
away.  So  tough  was  the  mass  that  I  was  a  whole 
day  in  uncovering  a  space  less  than  forty  feet 
long  by  twenty  broad ;  and  when  my  launching- 
pool  was  finished  it  had  the  look  of  a  little  pond  in 
a  meadow  surrounded  by  solid  banks. 

All  this  showed  me  that  even  with  the  screw 
to  push  while  I  cleared  a  way  for  the  boat's  pas 
sage  I  should  have  my  hands  full ;  but  it  also  put 
into  my  head  a  notion  that  helped  me  a  good  deal 
in  the  end.  This  was  to  rig  on  the  straight  stem 
of  my  boat  a  set  of  guide-bars  projecting  forward 
in  which  I  could  work  perpendicularly  a  cross-cut 
saw,  and  in  that  way  to  cut  a  slit  in  the  weed— 
which  would  be  widened  by  the  boat's  nose  thrust 
ing  into  it  as  the  screw  shoved  her  onward,  and  so 
would  enable  me  to  squeeze  along.  And  as  this 
was  a  matter  easy  of  accomplishment — being  only 
to  double  over  a  couple  of  iron  bars  so  that  there 
would  be  a  slit  a  half  inch  wide  for  the  saw  to 
travel  in,  and  to  bolt  them  fast  to  the  top  and  bot 
tom  of  the  boat's  stem — I  did  it  immediately  ;  and 
it  worked  so  well  when  I  came  to  try  it  that  I  was 

265 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

glad  enough  that  I  had  had  so  lucky  a  thought.  In 
deed,  had  I  known  how  well  it  would  turn  out  I 
should  have  gone  a  step  farther  and  rigged  my  saw 
to  run  by  steam  power — setting  up  a  frame  in  the 
bows  to  hold  a  wheel  carrying  a  pin  on  which  the 
saw  could  play  and  to  which  I  could  make  fast  a 
bar  from  my  piston-rod — and  in  that  way  saved 
myself  from  the  longest  bit  of  back-breaking  work 
that  ever  I  had  to  do.  But  that  was  a  piece  of 
foresight  that  came  afterward,  and  so  did  me  no 
good. 

When  my  guide-bars  were  in  place,  and  the  saw 
made  ready  to  slip  into  them  by  taking  off  one  of 
its  handles— and  I  had  still  a  cpare  saw  to  fall  back 
upon  in  the  event  of  the  first  one  breaking — my 
boat  was  ready  to  go  overboard  into  the  open  wa 
ter,  where  she  would  lie  while  I  put  aboard  of  her 
my  coal  and  stores.  But  the  work  that  was  before 
me,  as  I  thus  came  close  to  it,  loomed  up  very 
large ;  and  so  did  the  doubts  which  beset  me  as  to 
how  my  voyage  would  end.  Indeed,  it  was  in  a 
spirit  far  from  exultant  that  at  last  I  cut  the  lash 
ings  which  held  the  cradle ;  and  then  with  the 
tackle  that  I  had  ready  got  the  heavy  mass  started 
—and  in  a  couple  of  minutes  had  my  boat  safely 
overboard  and  floating  free,  as  the  cradle  sunk 
away  from  under  her,  carried  down  by  its  lading  of 
iron  bars. 

But,  whatever  was  to  come  of  it,  the  launching  of 

266 


A  FRESH  HAZARD  OF  FORTUNE 

my  boat  started  me  definitely  along  a  fresh  line  of 
adventure,  and  whether  I  liked  it  or  not  I  had  to 
make  the  best  of  it :  and  so  I  stated  the  case  to  my 
cat — who  had  got  scared  and  run  off  into  a  corner 
while  the  launching  was  in  progress  —  when  he 
came  marching  up  to  me  and  seated  himself  beside 
me  gravely,  as  I  stood  in  the  break  in  the  steamer's 
side  looking  down  at  the  boat  that  I  hoped  would 
set  us  free. 


XXXVI 

HOW  MY  CAT  PROMISED  ME  GOOD  LUCK 

WHAT  would  have  been  most  useful  to  me  as 
foresight,  but  was  only  aggravating  to  me  as  hind 
sight — which  happened  to  be  the  way  that  I  got  it 
—was  the  very  sensible  notion  that  I  might  have 
put  all  of  my  stores,  and  even  a  good  part  of  my 
coal,  aboard  the  boat  before  she  was  decked  over 
and  launched.  A  few  tons  more  or  less  would 
have  made  no  difference  in  moving  her;  but  hav 
ing  to  put  those  extra  tons  aboard  of  her  over  the 
side  of  the  steamer,  and  then  to  drag  them  through 
the  cabin  and  through  the  awkward  little  hatch, 
and  at  last  to  sto\\r  them  by  the  light  of  a  lantern 
in  her  stiflingly  close  hot  hold — all  that  made  a  lot 
of  difference  to  me.  However,  I  could  not  foresee 
everything;  and  I  think,  on  the  whole,  that  I 
really  did  foresee  most  of  what  I  wanted  pretty 
well. 

Of  provisions  I  took  along  enough  to  last  me,  by 
a  rough  calculation,  for  three  months ;  being  prettv 
well  satisfied  that  unless  within  that  time  I  got 
through  the  weed-tangle  to  open  water — over  which 

268 


MY  CAT  PROMISED  ME  GOOD  LUCK 

I  could  make  my  way  to  land,  or  on  which  I  might 
fall  in  with  a  passing  vessel  —  I  never  would  get 
free  at  all.  And  I  was  the  more  disposed  to  keep 
down  my  lading  of  provisions  because  I  wanted 
every  scrap  of  room  that  I  could  save  for  my  cargo 
of  coal.  But  my  stores  were  plentiful  for  the  term 
that  I  had  fixed  upon,  and  the  best  and  the  most 
nourishing— save  that  I  could  not  take  fresh  meat 
with  me — that  the  Ville  de  Saint  Remy  had  on 
board  ;  and  I  did  not  forget  to  take  a  good  supply 
of  the  tinned  chicken  and  the  condensed  milk  of 
which  my  dainty  cat  was  so  fond.  As  for  water— 
beside  having  my  condenser  to  fall  back  upon — I 
felt  pretty  sure  that  until  I  got  well  out  toward 
the  open  sea  I  could  trust  to  the  morning  rains. 
But  for  all  that  I  carried  two  barrels  with  me — 
filled  fresh  the  last  thing  before  I  started — stowed 
in  the  well  of  the  boat  aft  of  the  cabin;-  and  there 
too  I  carried  a  couple  of  ten-gallon  tins  of  oil  for 
my  lanterns  and  lamps. 

My  bone  -  breaking  job  was  getting  my  coal 
aboard.  For  ease  in  handling  and  in  stowing  it — 
though  I  lost  a  little  room  that  way — I  put  it  in 
canvas  sacks,  of  which  I  luckily  found  some  bales 
in  the  steamer's  cargo.  These  I  swung  up  from, 
the  engine-room  by  the  cinder-tackle  to  the  main 
deck  ;  and  having  got  them  that  far  I  packed  them 
on  my  back  to  the  break  in  the  steamer's  side 
where  my  boat  was  lying  and  tumbled  them  aboard 

269 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

of  her,  and  then  dragged  them  along  to  where  I 
stowed  them  in  her  hold.  On  my  coal  holding  out 
at  least  until  I  got  through  the  weed — for  on  open 
water  I  could  lay  a  course  under  sail — the  success 
of  my  adventure  wholly  depended ;  and  knowing 
that,  I  filled  my  boat  with  all  that  I  dared  to  put 
into  her — loading  the  last  twenty  bags  on  her  deck 
and  on  the  roof  of  her  cabin,  to  be  used  before  I 
drew  on  ray  main  supply. 

But  while  this  lading  was  a  big  one  it  did  not 
satisfy  me ;  and  the  only  way  that  I  could  think 
of  to  better  it  was  to  build  a  long  and  narrow  raft 
that  I  could  stow  as  much  more  on  and  tow  after 
me  in  the  boat's  wake.  This  was  a  big  undertak 
ing,  but  I  had  to  face  it  and  to  carry  it  through : 
lowering  down  three  spars  (in  managing  which  I 
used  a  treble-purchase  to  swing  them  clear,  and 
eased  them  down  with  a  couple  of  turns  of  the  rope 
still  around  the  capstan),  and  when  I  had  them 
over  the  side  in  a  pool  that  I  had  cleared  for  them 
I  lashed  them  strongly  together  and  decked  them 
over  with  some  of  the  state-room  doors.  This  gave 
me  a  raft  sixty  feet  long,  or  thereabouts,  but  nar 
rower  than  my  boat ;  and  to  make  it  follow  the 
boat  still  more  easily  I  set  a  V-shaped  cut-water  at 
its  bows  to  turn  the  weed.  To  be  sure,  it  was  a 
clumsy  thing,  but  it  well  enough  served  my  turn. 

On  this  structure  I  was  able  to  carry  a  prodig 
ious  quantity  of  coal  —  more  than  I  had  on  the 

270 


MY  CAT  PROMISED  ME  GOOD  LUCK 

boat,  by  a  good  deal ;  but  by  a  little  planning  in 
advance  I  arranged  matters  so  that  the  lading  of 
it  was  not  so  hard  a  piece  of  work — though  in  all 
conscience  it  was  hard  enough — as  the  lading  of 
my  boat  had  been.  What  I  did  was  to  clear  a  pool 
in  the  weed  for  it  and  to  build  it  directly  beneath 
the  outhang  of  the  cinder-tackle ;  and  having  that 
apparatus  ready  to  my  hand  I  swung  my  bags  of 
coal  up  from  the  engine-room,  and  then  out  along 
the  traveller,  and  then  lowered  them  away — and 
so  had  only  to  stow  them  on  the  raft  when  they 
were  down.  But  there  was  only  one  of  me  to  do 
all  this — to  fill  each  bag  in  the  bunkers  and  to 
bring  it  to  the  engine-room,  to  make  it  fast  there 
to  the  tackle,  to  come  on  deck  and  haul  it  up  and 
set  it  overboard,  to  go  down  the  side  and  set  it  in 
place,  and  then  back  to  the  bunkers  again  for  the 
next  round — and  so  I  spent  a  week  in  doing  what 
three  men  could  have  done  in  a  day.  And  I  was  a 
tired  man  and  a  grimy  man  when  I  got  this  piece 
of  work  finished ;  but  I  was  comforted  by  know 
ing  that  I  had  as  much  coal  in  my  sea -stock  as  I 
possibly  could  have  use  for — and  so  I  scrubbed  my 
self  clean  in  the  steamer's  bath-roqm  and  was  easy 
in  my  mind.  But  it  was  a  good  long  while  before 
I  got  the  aches  out  of  my  bones. 

During  my  last  week  aboard  the  Ville  de  Saint 
Remy  I  had  steam  up  in  my  boat  and  my  engine 
at  work  during  the  greater  part  of  each  day :  as 

271 


IN   THE    SARGASSO   SEA 

was  necessary,  the  engine  being  new,  in  order  to 
get  the  machinery  to  running  smoothly,  and  to  set 
right  anything  that  might  be  wrong  while  I  still 
had  the  steamer's  machine-shop  to  turn  to  for  re 
pairs.  However,  the  engine  proved  to  be  a  well- 
made  one,  and  except  that  I  had  to  tighten  a  joint 
here  and  there  and  to  repack  the  piston  I  had 
nothing  to  rectify  ;  and  what  still  more  pleased 
me  was  to  find  that  my  cage  answered  to  keep  the 
screw  from  fouling,  and  that  my  plan  for  sawing  a 
way  through  the  weed — which  I  tested  by  running 
a  little  distance  from  the  steamer  through  the  thick 
of  it — worked  well  too.  But  because  of  the  great 
friction  to  be  overcome  as  the  boat  opened  a  way 
for  itself  in  the  dense  soft  mass  my  progress  was 
desperately  slow ;  and  I  had  to  comfort  me  the  re 
flection  that  it  would  be  still  slower  when  I  got 
regularly  under  way  and  had  in  addition  to  the 
dead  thrust  forward  of  the  boat  the  dead  drag 
after  it  of  the  raft. 

Slow  or  fast,  though,  I  had  no  choice  in  the 
matter.  With  the  means  at  my  command,  I  had 
done  all  that  I  could  do  to  enable  me  to  climb  the 
walls  of  my  prison — if  I  may  put  it  that  way — and 
there  remained  only  to  muster  what  pluck  I  had  to 
help  me  and  to  abide  by  the  result.  This  was  the 
view  of  the  situation  that  I  presented  to  my  cat — 
for  I  had  got  into  the  habit  of  talking  to  him  quite 
as  much  as  he  talked  to  me — while  we  sat  at  sup- 

272 


MY  CAT  PROMISED  ME  GOOD  LUCK 

per  together  on  the  last  evening  that  we  were  to 
pass  on  board  of  the  Ville  de  Saint  JRemy ;  and 
while  he  did  not  make  much  of  a  reply  to  me  he 
did  mumble  some  sort  of  a  purring  answer  that  I 
took  to  mean  he  was  willing,  if  I  were,  to  make 
the  trial. 

Early  that  morning,  while  the  rain  still  was  fall 
ing,  I  had  filled  my  two  casks  with  fresh  water ; 
and  after  my  breakfast  I  got  them  aboard  the  boat 
and  then  went  to  work  at  setting  up  my  mast — 
using  one  of  the  davits  in  place  of  sheers  and  so 
managing  the  job  very  well.  After  that  I  had 
rigged  the  sail,  and  had  set  it  to  make  sure  that  all 
was  right ;  and  then  had  furled  it  and  lashed  the 
boom  fast  on  the  roof  of  the  cabin  among  the  bags 
of  coal — and  with  rather  a  heavy  heart,  too,  for  I 
knew  that  the  chances  were  more  than  even  against 
my  ever  getting  to  open  water  and  fresh  breezes, 
and  so  loosing  again  the  knots  which  I  had  just 
tied.  In  the  afternoon  I  had  set  my  engine  to  go 
ing  again  for  an  hour,  and  then  had  banked  my 
fires  against  the  morning ;  and  after  that,  until  the 
shadows  began  to  fall,  I  had  spent  my  time  in  go 
ing  over  the  list  that  I  had  made  of  my  sea-stock 
to  be  sure  that  nothing  that  I  needed  was  forgot 
ten,  and  in  taking  a  final  general  survey  of  my 
boat  and  its  stores.  And  when  darkness  came  the 
cat  and  I  had  our  supper  together — which  was  as 
good  a  one  as  the  ship  could  provide  us  with — and 
s  273 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

when  we  had  finished  I  told  him,  as  I  have  said, 
what  the  chances  were  for  and  against  our  succeed 
ing  in  our  undertaking  and  in  return  asked  him  for 
an  expression  of  his  own  views. 

That  he  f  ally  understood  what  I  told  him  I  am 
not  prepared  to  say ;  but  he  certainly  did  answer 
me :  jumping  up  on  my  lap  and  shoving  his  paws 
alternately  against  my  stomach,  and  purring  in  so 
cheerful  a  fashion,  and  altogether  making  such  a 
show  of  good  spirits  as  to  satisfy  me  that  he  was 
trying  to  tell  me  that  we  certainly  would  pull 
through.  And  my  cat's  promise  of  good  luck  fell 
in  so  exactly  with  my  own  confident  hopes — which 
were  rising  strongly  as  the  time  for  testing  them 
got  close  at  hand — that  I  hugged  him  tight  to  me 
very  lovingty,  and  on  my  side  promised  that  with 
in  another  month  or  two  he  should  stretch  his  legs 
in  a  mouse-hunt  on  dry  land !  And  with  that  I 
put  the  lamp  out  and  we  turned  in  for  the  night. 


XXXVII 

HOW   MY    CAT  STILL    FARTHER    CHEERED    ME 

IT  was  in  the  grey  of  early  morning,  while  the 
rain  still  was  falling,  that  the  cat  and  I  had  our 
breakfast ;  and  as  soon  as  the  rain  was  over  I  was 
down  in  the  boat,  and  had  off  the  tarpaulin  that 
covered  her  stern-sheets,  and  was  busy  bringing  up 
my  banked  fires.  One  thing  that  I  had  learned 
how  to  do  during  the  week  that  I  had  been  testing 
my  engine  was  to  bank  my  fires  well;  and  that 
was' a  matter  of  a  good  deal  of  importance  to  me — 
since  every  night  during  my  voyage  the  fifes  would 
have  to  be  kept  that  way,  on  the  double  score  of 
my  inability  to  hold  my  course  in  the  darkness 
and  of  my  need  for  sleep. 

Presently  I  had  steam  up ;  and  then  I  went  back 
to  the  ship  for  the  last  and  most  important  piece 
of  rny  cargo — my  bag  of  jewels.  It  was  with  a 
queer  feeling,  half  of  doubt  and  half  of  exultation, 
that  I  fetched  out  this  little  bundle — still  done  up 
in  the  sleeve  of  the  oilskin  jacket — and  stowed  it 
in  one  of  the  lockers  in  the  cabin  of  my  boat.  If 
my  voyage  went  well,  then  all  the  rest  of  my  life 

275 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

— so  far  as  wealth  makes  for  happiness — would  go 
well  too :  for  in  that  rough  and  dirty  little  bag  was 
such  a  treasure — that  I  had  won  away  from  the 
dead  ship  holding  it — as  would  make  me  one  of 
the  richest  men  in  the  world.  But  against  this  ex 
ultant  hope  stood  up  a  doubt  so  dark  that  there 
was  no  great  room  in  my  mind  for  cheerfulness : 
for  as  I  stowed  away  the  jewels  in  the  boat  I  could 
not  but  think  of  those  others  who  had  stowed  them 
away  two  hundred  years  and  more  before  aboard 
the  galleon  ;  and  who  had  started  in  their  great 
ship  well  manned  on  a  voyage  in  which  the  risk  of 
disaster  was  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  risk 
that  I  had  to  face  in  the  voyage  that  I  was  under 
taking  in  my  little  boat  alone.  Yet  their  venture 
had  ended  miserably ;  and  I,  trying  singly  to  ac 
complish  what  their  whole  company  had  failed  in, 
very  well  might  surrender  the  treasure  again,  as 
they  had  surrendered  it,  to  the  storm-power  of  the 
sea. 

But  thinking  these  dismal  thoughts  was  no  help 
to  me,  and  so  I  choked  them  down  and  went  once 
more  aboard  the  steamer  to  make  sure  that  I  had 
forgotten  nothing  that  I  needed  by  taking  a  final 
look  around.  This  being  ended  without  my  seeing 
anything  that  was  necessary  to  me,  I  said  good 
bye  to  the  Ville  de  Saint  Remy  and  got  down  into 
my  boat  again ;  and  my  cat — who  usually  sat  in 
the  break  of  the  side  of  the  steamer  while  I  was  at 

270 


HOW   MY   CAT  STILL    CHEERED   ME 

work  in  the  boat,  though  sometimes  asking  with  a 
rniau  to  be  lifted  down  into  her — of  his  own  accord 
jumped  aboard  ahead  of  me :  and  that  I  took  for  a 
good  sign. 

Certainly,  the  cat  and  I  made  as  queer  a  ship's 
company  as  ever  went  afloat  together ;  and  our  lit 
tle  craft — with  its  cargo  that  would  have  bought 
a  whole  fleet's  lading — was  such  an  argosy  as  never 
before  had  sailed  the  seas.  Nor  did  even  Columbus, 
when  he  struck  out  across  the  black  ocean  west 
ward,  start  upon  a  voyage  so  blind  and  so  seeming 
ly  hopeless  as  was  ours.  The  Admiral,  at  least, 
had  with  him  such  aids  to  navigation  as  his  times 
afforded,  and  went  cruising  in  open  water ;  failing  in 
his  quest,  the  chance  was  free  to  him  to  put  about 
again  and  so  come  once  more  to  his  home  among 
living  men.  But  I  had  not  even  his  poor  equip 
ment  ;  and  as  to  turning  again  and  so  coming  back 
to  the  point  whence  I  started — even  supposing  that 
I  could  manage  it  —  that  ending  to  my  voyage 
would  be  so  miserable  that  it  would  be  better  for 
me  to  die  by  the  way. 

In  none  of  the  vessels  through  which  I  had 
searched  had  I  found  a  sextant;  nor  would  it  have 
been  of  any  use  to  me,  had  I  found  one,  unless  I 
had  found  also  a  chronometer  still  keeping  time. 
Charts  I  did  find ;  but  as  I  had  to  know  my  posi 
tion  to  get  any  good  from  them,  and  as  I  would 
run  straight  for  any  land  that  I  sighted  without  in 

277 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

the  least  caring  on  what  coast  I  made  my  land 
fall,  I  left  them  behind.  My  only  aid  to  navigation 
was  a  compass,  that  I  got  from  the  binnacle  of 
a  ship  lying  near  the  Ville  cle  Saint  Remy ;  and 
aboard  the  same  vessel  I  found  a  very  good  spy 
glass,  and  gladly  brought  it  along  with  me  because 
it  would  add  to  my  chances— should  I  reach  open 
water — not  only  of  sighting  a  distant  ship  but  of 
making  out  ho\v  she  was  standing  in  time  to  head 
her  off. 

But  for  all  practical  purposes  the  compass  was 
enough  for  me.  I  knew  that  to  the  westward  lay 
the  American  continent,  and  that  between  it  and 
where  I  then  was— for  it  was  certain  that  I  was 
not  far  south  of  the  latitude  of  the  Azores — was 
that  section  of  the  Atlantic  which  is  more  thickly 
crowded  with  ships  than  any  other  like-sized  bit  of 
ocean  in  the  world.  My  chance  of  escape,  there 
fore,  and  my  only  chance,  lay  in  holding  to  a  due 
west  course :  hoping  first  that,  being  clear  of  the 
weed,  I  might  fall  in  with  some  passing  vessel ;  and 
second  that  I  might  make  the  coast  before  a  storm 
came  on  me  by  which  my  little  boat  would  be 
swamped.  And  so  I  opened  the  throttle  of  my  en 
gine  :  and  as  the  screw  began  to  revolve  I  headed 
my  boat  for  the  cut  in  the  weed  which  I  had  made 
when  I  was  testing  her — while  my  tow-rope  drew 
taut  and  after  me  came  slowly  my  long  raft. 

doubt  it  was  only  because  the  hiss  of  the  es- 


HOW  MY    CAT  STILL   CHEERED  ME 

caping  steam  startled  him ;  but  at  the  first  turn  of 
the  engine  my  cat  scampered  forward  and  seated 
himself  in  the  very  bovys  of  the  boat — a  little  black 
figure-head — and  thence  gazed  out  steadfastly  west 
ward  as  though  he  were  the  pilot  charged  with  the 
duty  of  setting  our  vessel's  course.  He  had  to  give 
place  to  me  in  a  moment — when  I  went  to  the 
bows  to  begin  my  sawing  through  the  weed — but 
I  was  cheered  by  his  planting  himself  that  way 
pointing  our  course  with  his  nose  for  me :  and 
again  I  took  his  bit  of  freakishness  for  a  good  sign. 


XXXVIII 

HOW  I  FOUGHT  MY  WAY  THROUGH  THE  SARGASSO  WEED 

WHAT  I  did  on  that  first  day  of  my  voyage  was 
what  I  did  on  every  succeeding  day  during  so  long 
a  time  that  it  seemed  to  me  the  end  of  it  never 
would  come. 

When  my  craft  fairly  was  started,  with  the  fire 
well  fed  and  a  light  enough  weight  on  the  safety- 
valve  to  guard  against  any  sudden  chance  rise  in 
the  steam  pressure,  I  went  forward  to  the  bows 
with  the  compass  and  set  myself  to  my  sawing. 
The  wheel  being  lashed  with  the  rudder  amidships, 
all  the  steering  was  managed  from  the  bows — any 
deviation  from  the  straight  line  westward  being  cor 
rected  by  my  taking  the  saw  out  from  the  guide- 
bars  and  cutting  to  the  right  or  to  the  left  with  it 
until  I  had  the  boat's  nose  pointing  again  the  right 
way.  But  there  was  not  often  need  for  cutting  of 
this  sort.  Held  by  the  guide-bars,  the  saw  cut  a 
straight  path  for  the  boat  to  follow ;  while,  con 
versely,  the  boat  held  the  saw  true.  And  so,  for 
the  most  part,  I  had  only  to  stand  like  a  machine 
there— endlessly  hauling  the  saw  up  and  endlessly 

280 


HOW   I   FOUGHT  MY   WAY 

thrusting  it  down.  Behind  me  my  little  engine 
puffed  and  snorted ;  over  the  bows,  below  me,  was 
the  soft  crunching  sound  of  the  weed  opening  as 
the  boat  thrust  her  nose  into  it ;  and  on  each  side 
of  me  was  the  soft  hissing  rustling  of  the  weed 
against  the  boat's  sides.  From  time  to  time  I 
would  stop  for  sheer  weariness — for  anything  more 
back-breaking  than  the  steady  working  of  that  saw 
I  never  came  across ;  and  from  time  to  time  I  had 
to  stop  my  engine — which  I  managed,  and  also  the 
starting  of  it,  by  means  of  a  pair  of  lines  brought 
forward  into  the  bows  from  the  lever-bar — while  I 
attended  to  feeding  the  fire. 

The  only  breaks  in  this  deadly  monotonous  round 
were  when  I  ate  my  meals — and  at  first  these  were 
as  pleasant  -as  they  were  restful,  with  the  cat  sit 
ting  beside  me  and  eating  very  contentedly  too — 
and  when  I  fell  in  with  a  bit  of  wreckage  that  I 
had  to  steer  clear  of  or  to  move  out  of  my  way. 
Interruptions  of  this  latter  sort  —  even  though 
they  gave  me  a  change  from  my  wearying  sawing 
— were  hard  to  put  up  with  ;  for  they  not  only 
held  me  back  wofully,  but  they  kept  me  in  con 
tinual  alarm  lest  I  should  break  my  saw.  When 
the  obstacle  was  a  derelict,  or  anything  so  large 
that  I  could  see  it  well  ahead  of  me  and  so  could 
have  plenty  of  time  in  which  to  swing  the  boat  to 
one  side  of  it  by  slicing  a  diagonal  way  for  her,  I 
could  get  along  without  much  difficulty ;  but  when 

281 


IN   THE   SARGASSO    SEA 

it  was  only  a  spar  or  a  mast,  so  bedded  in  the  weed 
that  my  first  knowledge  of  it  was  finding  it  close 
under  my  bows,  there  was  no  chance  to  make  a 
detour  and  I  had  to  thrust  it  aside  with  a  boat- 
hook  or  go  to  hacking  at  it  with  an  axe  until  I  had 
cut  it  through.  And  often  it  happened  that  I 
knew  nothing  at  all  of  the  obstacle,  the  weed  cov 
ering  it  completely,  until  my  saw  struck  against  it ; 
and  that  would  send  a  cold  shiver  through  me,  as  I 
whipped  my  saw  out  of  the  wrater — for  I  had  only 
two  saws  with  me,  and  I  knew  that  to  break  one 
of  them  cut  down  my  chances  of  escape  by  a  half. 
Indeed,  my  first  saw  did  get  broken  while  I  still 
was  in  the  thick  of  the  tangle ;  and  after  that  I 
was  in  a  constant  tremor,  which  became  almost 
agony  when  I  felt  the  least  jar  in  my  cutting,  for 
fear  that  the  other  would  go  too. 

But  with  it  all  I  managed  to  make  pretty  fair 
progress,  and  better  than  I  had  counted  upon  ;  for 
I  succeeded  in  covering,  as  nearly  as  I  could  reckon 
it,  close  upon  three  miles  a  day.  After  I  fairly 
got  out  upon  my  course  I  had  no  means  whatever 
of  judging  distances ;  but  my  estimate  of  my  ad 
vance  was  made  at  the  end  of  my  first  day's  run, 
when  the  wreck-pack  still  was  in  sight  behind  me 
and  enabled  me  to  make  a  close  guess  at  how  far 
I  had  come.  As  the  sun  went  down  that  night 
over  my  bows  —  making  a  long  path  of  crimson 
along  the  weed  ahead  of  me,  and  filling  the  mist 

282 


HOW    I    FOUGHT    MY    WAY 

with  a  crimson  glow  —  I  still  could  make  out, 
though  very  faintly,  the  continent  of  wrecks  from 
which  I  had  started ;  and  with  my  glass  I  could 
distinguish  the  Ville  de  Saint  Remy  by  the  three 
flags  which  I  had  left  flying  on  her  masts.  And 
the  sight  of  her,  and  the  thought  of  how  comfort 
able  and  how  safe  I  had  been  aboard  of  her,  and 
of  how  I  was  done  with  her  forever  and  was  tying 
to  as  slim  a  chance  of  life  as  ever  a  man  tied  to, 
for  a  while  put  a  great  heaviness  upon  my  heart. 
Not  until  darkness  came  and  shut  her  out  from  me, 
and  I  was  resting  in  my  brightly  lighted  comfort 
able  little  cabin — with  my  supper  to  cheer  me,  and 
with  my  cat  to  cheer  me  too — did  my  spirits  rise 
again ;  and  I  was  glad,  when  I  got  under  way  once 
more  in  the  morning,  that  the  heavy  mist  cut  her 
off  from  me — and  that  by  the  time  the  sun  had 
thinned  the  mist  a  little  I  had  made  such  progress 
as  to  put  her  out  of  sight  of  me  for  good  and  all. 

Through  my  second  day  I  still  could  make  out 
the  loom  of  the  wreck  -  pack  behind  me  —  a  dark 
line  low  down  in  the  mist  that  I  should  have  taken 
for  a  rain-cloud  had  I  not  known  what  it  was ;  but 
that  also  was  pretty  well  gone>  by  evening,  and 
from  my  third  day  onward  I  was  encompassed 
wholly  by  the  soft  veil  of  golden  mist  hanging  low 
around  me  over  the  weed-covered  sea.  Only  about 
noon  time,  when  this  veil  grew  thinner  and  had 
in  it  a  brighter  golden  tone — or  at  sunset,  when  it 

283 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

was  shot  through  with  streams  of  crimson  light 
which  filled  it  with  a  ruddy  glow — was  it  possible 
for  me  to  see  for  more  than  a  mile  or  so  in  any 
direction ;  and  even  when  my  horizon  thus  was  en 
larged  a  little  my  view  still  was  the  same  :  always 
the  weed  spread  out  over  the  water  so  thickly  that 
nowhere  was  there  the  slightest  break  in  it,  and  so 
dense  and  solid  that  it  would  have  seemed  like 
land  around  me  but  for  its  very  gentle  undulating 
motion — which  made  me  giddy  if  I  looked  at  it 
for  long  at  a  time.  The  only  relief  to  this  dull 
flat  surface  was  when  I  came  upon  a  wrecked  ship, 
or  upon  a  hummock  of  wreckage,  rising  a  little  up 
from  it — also  swaying  very  gently  with  a  weary 
ing  motion  that  seemed  as  slow  as  time.  And  the 
silent  despairing  desolateness  of  it  all  sunk  down 
into  my  very  soul. 

Even  my  cat  seemed  to  feel  the  misery  of  that 
great  loneliness  and  lost  so  much  of  his  cheerful 
ness  that  he  got  to  be  but  a  dull  companion  for 
me ;  though  likely  enough  what  ailed  him  was  the 
reflex  of  my  own  poor  spirits,  made  low  by  my 
constant  bodily  weariness,  and  had  I  shown  any 
liveliness  he  would  have  been  lively  too.  But  I 
was  too  tired  to  think  much  about  him — or  about 
anything  else — as  day  after  day  I  stood  in  the  bow 
of  the  boat  working  my  saw  up  and  down  with 
a  deadly  dull  monotony :  that  had  no  break  save 
when  I  stopped  to  rest  a  little  my  aching  body,  or 

284 


HOW   I   FOUGHT   MY   WAY 

to  have  a  tussle  with  a  bit  of  wreckage  that  barred 
my  passage,  or  to  stoke  myself  with  food,  or  to 
put  coal  beneath  my  boiler,  or  to  lie  down  at  night 
with  every  one  of  my  bones  and  muscles  heavy 
with  a  dull  pain. 

And  all  the  sound  that  there  was  in  that  still 
misty  solitude  was  the  puffing  of  my  engine,  and 
the  wheel  churning  in  the  water,  and  the  sharp 
hiss  of  the  saw  as  it  severed  the  matted  fibres,  and 
the  crunching  and  rustling  that  the  boat  made  as 
it  went  onward  with  a  leaden  slowness  through 
the  weed. 


XXXIX 

WHY    MY    CAT    CALLED    OUT    TO    ME 

I  HAD  thought  that  I  had  struck  the  bed-rock  of 
misery  when  I  was  wandering  in  the  dead  depths 
of  the  wreck-pack,  with  the  conviction  strong  upon 
me  that  in  a  little  while  I  would  be  dead  there  too. 
But  as  I  look  back  upon  that  long  suffering  of  lone 
ly  sorrow  I  think  now  that  the  worst  of  it  came 
to  me  after  I  had  left  the  wreck-pack  behind.  In 
that  last  round  that  I  fought  with  misfortune  the 
strength  of  my  body  was  exhausted  so  completely 
that  it  could  give  no  support  to  my  spirit ;  and  as 
the  days  went  on  and  on — always  with  the  same 
weed -covered  sea  around  me  and  the  same  soft 
golden  mist  over  me,  and  I  always  working  wearily 
but  with  the  stolid  steadiness  of  a  machine  —  so 
deadening  a  numbness  took  hold  of  me  that  I  seem 
ed  to  myself  like  some  far-away  strange  person — 
yet  one  with  whom  I  had  a  direct  connection,  and 
must  needs  sorrow  for  and  sympathize  with— 
struggling  interminably  through  the  dull  jading 
mazes  of  a  night-mare  dream. 

Once  only  was  I  aroused  from  this  stupor  of 
286 


WHY   MY   CAT   CALLED    OUT   TO    ME 

spirit  that  went  with  my  vigorous  yet  apathetic 
bodily  action.  Just  at  sunset  one  evening  I  sight 
ed  a  vessel  of  some  sort  far  ahead  of  me — a  black 
mass  looming  uncertainly  against  the  rich  glow  of 
crimson  that  filled  the  west — and  for  some  reason 
or  another  I  took  into  my  head  the  fancy  that  I 
was  nearing  open  water  and  that  this  was  not  a 
wreck  but  a  living  ship  on  board  of  which  I  would 
find  living  men:  and  at  the  thought  of  meeting 
with  live  men  again  I  fairly  cried  with  joy.  Then 
darkness  fell  and  shut  her  out  from  me;  leaving 
me  so  eager  that  I  could  not  sleep  for  thinking  of 
her,  and  almost  tempting  me  to  press  on  through 
the  night  that  I  might  be  close  up  to  her  by  dawn. 
But  when  in  the  first  faint  grey  light  of  early 
morning  I  made  her  out  again,  and  saw  that  she 
was  in  just  the  same  position  and  at  just  the  same 
distance  ahead  of  me,  I  was  almost  as' sorry  as  I 
would  have  been  had  she  vanished ;  for  I  knew 
that  had  she  been  a  living  ship  in  that  long  night 
time  she  would  have  sailed  away.  And  by  noon, 
being  then  close  upon  her,  I  could  see  that  she  was 
floating  bottom  upwards :  and  so  knew  certainly 
that  she  was  only  a  dead  wreck  drifting  in  slowly 
to  take  her  place  among  the  dead  wrecks  which  I 
had  left  behind  me ;  and  beyond  her,  instead  of 
open  water,  I  saw  only  the  weed  -  covered  ocean 
stretching  onward  unbroken  until  it  was  lost  in  the 
golden  haze. 

287 


IN    THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

Even  then,  though,  I  had  a  foolish  hope  that 
there  might  be  living  men  clinging  to  her,  and  I 
edged  my  boat  off  its  course  a  little  so  that  I  might 
run  close  under  her  stern.  But  no  one  showed  on 
her  hull  as  I  neared  her,  and  only  my  own  voice 
broke  the  heavy  silence  as  I  crazily  hailed  her  again 
and  again.  And  then  1  fell  into  a  dull  rage  with 
her,  so  weary  was  I  of  my  loneliness  and  so  bitter 
was  my  disappointment  at  finding  her  deserted— 
until  suddenly  a  very  different  train  of  emotions 
was  aroused  in  me  as  I  made  out  slowly  the  weath 
ered  inverted  lettering  on  her  up-tilting  stern,  and 
so  read  her  name  there :  Golden  Hind  ! 

Like  a  flash  I  had  before  me  clearly  all  the  de 
tails  of  my  last  moments  aboard  of  her :  my  quick 
sharp  Avords  with  Captain  Luke,  my  step  backward 
with  my  arms  up  as  he  and  the  mate  pressed  upon 
me,  the  smasher  that  I  got  in  on  the  mate's  jaw, 
the  crack  on  my  own  head  that  stunned  me — and 
then  my  revival  of  consciousness  as  I  found  my 
self  adrift  in  the  ocean  and  saw  the  brig  sailing 
away.  And  while  these  thoughts  crowded  upon 
me  my  boat  went  onward  through  the  weed  slow 
ly —  and  presently  I  had  again  parted  company 
Avith  the  Golden  Hind,  and  this  time  for  good 
and  all. 

After  that  break  in  it  my  dull  despairing  weari 
ness  settled  down  upon  me  again — as  the  heavy 
days  drifted  past  me  and  I  pressed  steadily  on,  and 


WHY   MY    CAT   CALLED    OUT   TO    ME 

on,  and  on.  How  time  went  I  do  not  know.  I 
could  keep  no  track  of  days  which  always  were 
the  same.  But  I  must  have  been  on  my  voyage  for 
nearly  a  month  when  I  fell  in  with  the  Golden 
Hind:  as  I  know  because  a  little  while  after  pass 
ing  her  I  used  the  last  of  the  coal  that  was  on  the 
raft  and  cast  it  off — and  my  calculation  at  start 
ing  had  been  that  the  coal  aboard  the  raft  would 
last  me  for  about  thirty  days. 

Getting  rid  of  the  raft  was  a  good  thing  for  me 
in  one  way,  for  when  the  boat  was  relieved  from 
that  heavy  mass  dragging  through  the  weed  after 
her  she  went  almost  twice  as  fast.  But  in  another 
way  it  was  a  bad  thing  for  me,  for  it  left  me  with 
only  what  coal  I  had  on  the  boat  herself — and,  so 
far  as  I  could  judge  from  my  surroundings,  I  was 
no  nearer  to  being  over  the  wall  of  my  prison  than 
I  was  on  that  first  morning  when  I  put  off  from 
the  Ville  de  Saint  Reiny.  Still  the  weed  stretched 
away  endlessly  on  all  sides  of  me,  and  still  the 
golden  mist  ceaselessly  hung  over  me — only  it  did 
seem  to  me,  though  I  did  not  trust  myself  to  play 
much  with  this  hopeful  fancy,  that  the  mist  was 
a  good  deal  thinner  than  it  had  been  during  the 
earlier  part  of  my  voyage. 

But  I  was  too  broken  to  take  much  notice  of  my 

surroundings.     Still  I  worked  on  and  on,  with  the 

steadfastness  and  the  hopelessness  of  a  machine : 

up  and  down  over  the  bows  with  my  saw  inter- 

T  289 


IN   THE    SARGASSO    SEA 

minably,  with  only  little  breaks  for  rest  and  eat 
ing  and  to  keep  my  fires  up  or  for  a  struggle  with 
a  bit  of  wreckage  that  barred  my  way;  and  at 
night  to  weary  sleep  that  did  not  rest  me;  and 
then  up  before  sunrise  to  begin  it  all  again  with 
a  fresh  day  that  had  no  freshness  in  it — and  was 
like  all  the  many  days  of  desperate  toil  which  had 
gone  before  it,  and  like  the  others  which  still  were 
to  come. 

Even  when  I  saw  ahead  of  me  one  morning  a 
long  lane  of  open  water,  a  wide  break  in  the  weed,  I 
was  too  dull  to  think  much  about  it  beyond  steer 
ing  my  way  into  it  thankfully — and  then  feeling 
a  slow  wonder  as  the  boat  slid  along  with  no  rus 
tling  noise  on  each  side  of  her  at  what  seemed  to 
me  an  almost  breathless  speed.  But  as  that  day 
went  on  and  the  mist  grew  lighter  and  lighter 
about  me  and  I  came  to  more  and  more  of  these 
open  spaces,  and  at  the  same  time  found  that  the 
weed  between  them  was  so  much  thinner  that  the 
boat  almost  could  push  through  it  without  having 
a  path  cut  for  her,  I  began  faintly  to  realize  that 
perhaps  I  had  got  to  the  beginning  of  the  end. 
And  then,  for  the  first  time  since  I  had  lapsed  into 
my  stolid  insensibility,  a  little  weak  thrill  of  hope 
went  through  me  and  I  seemed  to  be  waking  from 
my  despairing  dream. 

With  the  next  day,  however,  hope  full  and 
strong  fairly  got  hold  of  me :  for  I  was  out  of  the 

290 


WHY   MY    CAT   CALLED   OUT   TO   ME 

mist  completely,  and  the  weed  was  so  thin  that  I 
brought  my  saw  inboard  and  finally  had  done 
with  it,  and  the  stretches  of  open  water  were  so 
many  and  so  large  that  I  knew  that  the  blessed 
free  ocean  must  be  very  near  at  hand.  And  I  think 
that  my  cat  knew  as  well  as  I  did  that  our  troubles 
were  close  to  a  good  ending ;  for  all  of  a  sudden 
he  gave  over  his  moping  and  fell  to  frisking  about 
me  and  to  going  through  all  the  tricks  which  I 
had  taught  him  of  his  own  accord  ;  and  thence 
onward  he  spent  most  of  his  time  on  the  roof  of 
the  cabin — looking  about  him  with  a  curious  in- 
tentness,  for  all  the  world  as  though  I  had  station 
ed  him  there  to  watch  out  for  a  ship  bearing  down 
on  us,  or  for  land.  Even  when  I  found  that  day 
that  only  a  dozen  bags  of  coal  were  left  to  me — 
for  I  had  fed  my  furnace  while  my  heaviness  was 
upon  me  without  paying  any  attention  to  how 
things  were  going  Avith  my  stock  of  fuel — my  spir 
its  were  none  the  worse  for  my  discovery ;  for  with 
every  mile  that  I  went  onward  the  weed  was  grow 
ing  thinner  and  I  felt  safe  enough  about  contin 
uing  my  voyage  under  sail. 

Because  my  rousing  out  of  my  lethargy  had  been 
so  slow,  this  change  in  my  chances  seemed  to  come 
upon  me  with  a  startling  suddenness  —  when  in 
reality,  I  suppose,  I  might  have  seen  signs  of  it  a 
good  while  sooner  than  I  did  see  them  had  my 
mind  been  clear.  But  the  actual  end  of  my  ad- 

291 


IN    THE   SARGASSO   SEA 

venture,  the  resolving  of  my  hopes  into  a  glad  cer 
tainty  of  rescue,  really  did  come  upon  me  with  a 
rush  at  last. 

We  fairly  were  in  open  water,  and  the  cat  and 
I  were  dining  in  the  cabin  together  very  cheerful 
ly — with  the  helm  lashed  and  the  boat  going  on 
her  course  at  half  speed.  I  was  disposed  to  linger 
over  my  meal  a  little,  for  I  was  beginning  to  en 
joy  once  more  the  luxury  of  getting  rest  when  I 
rested,  and  when  my  cat  suddenly  left  me  and  went 
on  deck  by  himself— a  thing  that  he  never  before 
had  done — I  took  his  desertion  of  me  in  ill  part. 
A  moment  later  I  heard  the  padding  of  his  feet  on 
the  roof  of  the  cabin  over  me,  and  smiled  to  my 
self  as  I  thought  of  him  going  on  watch  there; 
and  then,  presently,  I  heard  him  calling  me — for  I 
had  come  to  understand  a  good  many  of  his  turns 
of  language— with  a  lively  "  Miau !"  But  it  was  not 
until  he  called  me  again,  and  more  urgently,  that 
the  oddness  of  his  conduct  came  home  to  me  and 
made  me  hurry  on  deck  after  him ;  and  my  first 
glance  at  him  made  me  look  in  the  direction  in 
which  he  was  looking  eagerly :  and  there  I  saw  the 
smoke  of  a  steamer  trailing  black  to  the  horizon, 
and  beneath  it  her  long  black  hull— and  she  was 
heading  straight  for  me,  and  coming  along  at  such 
a  ripping  rate  that  within  twenty  minutes  she 
would  be  across  my  bows. 

Half  an  hour  more  brought  matters  to  a  finish. 


ra 
292 


WHY   MY    CAT    CALLED    OUT   TO    ME 

I  had  only  to  wait  where  I  was  until  the  steamer 
was  close  down  upon  me,  and  then  to  run  in  under 
her  counter  so  that  her  people  might  throw  me  a 
line.  Her  whole  side  was  crowded  with  faces  as 
she  stopped  her  way  and  I  came  up  with  her,  and 
on  her  rail  a  tall  officer  was  standing  —  holding 
fast  with  one  hand  to  the  rigging  and  having  in 
the  other  a  coil  of  rope  all  ready  to  cast. 

One  face  among  the  many  clustered  there,  and 
a  mighty  friendly  one,  was  familiar  to  me ;  but  I 
could  not  place  it  until  a  jolly  voice  hailed  me  that 
I  recognized  with  a  warm  thrill — and  the  sound 
of  it  filled  me  with  joy  as  I  thought  of  my  bag  of 
jewels  in  the  cabin  locker,  and  of  how  at  last  my 
doctor's  bill  would  be  paid. 

"  And  so  it's  yourself,  my  fine  big  young  man, 
and  at  }^our  old  tricks  again.  But  it's  this  time 
that  you  have  the  good  luck  of  a  black  cat  for 
company  in  your  cruising  all  alone  by  yourself 
over  the  open  sea !" 

And  then  the  tall  officer  with  the  coil  of  rope 
sung  out  "  Catch !"-  —  and  sent  the  line  whizzing 
down  to  me,  and  I  caught  the  end  of  it  in  my 
hand. 


THE    END 


BY  JAMES    BARNES 


A    LOYAL    TRAITOR.     A  Story  of  the  War  of  1812. 

Illustrated.     Post  8vo,  Cloth,  Ornamental,  $1  50. 

A  vigorous  romance  it  is,  full  of  life  and  adventure. — N.  Y. 
Herald. 

A  stirring  story.  .  .  .  The  several  characters  are  finely  bal 
anced  and  well  drawn,  and  are  admirably  interwoven  to  give 
reasonableness  and  completeness  in  every  chapter. — Chicago 
Inter-  Ocean. 

We  turn  with  a  feeling  of  relief  to  Mr.  Barnes's  breezy  and 
Marryat-like  story  of  the  American  privateersman.  .  .  .  This  is 
all  genuine  romance,  with  a  wide  horizon  and  many  changes  of 
scene.  .  .  .  Mr.  Barnes  has  done  his  work  well. — N.  Y.  Times. 

An  excellent  and  intensely  interesting  story  of  romance  and 
adventure. — Brooklyn  Standard-  Union. 

The  book  has  freshness,  animation,  and  strong  story-interest. 
—  Outlook,  X.  Y. 

A  quick-moving,  picturesque  story.  The  daring  Yankee 
sailor  of  that  naval  war,  his  life  above  deck  and  below,  in  battle 
and  in  cruise,  his  dialect  and  yarns,  are  all  quaintly  reproduced 
in  a  series  of  vivid  scenes. — Philadelphia  Record. 

FOR  KING  OR  COUNTRY.  A  Story  of  the  American 
Revolution.  Illustrated.  Post  8vo,  Cloth,  Orna 
mental,  $1  50. 

NAVAL  ACTIONS  OF  THE  WAR  OF  1812.  Illus 
trated.  8vo,  Cloth,  Ornamental,  $4  50. 


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FOUR  FOR  A  FORTUNE.  A  Tale.  Illustrated 
by  F.  C.  YOHN.  Post  8vo,  Cloth,  Ornamental, 

$1   25. 

The  story  is  one  of  adventure  and  of  treasure-hunting.  A 
French  sailor  comes  to  New  York  having  in  his  possession  a 
half-burned  chart,  the  writing  on  which  he  is  unable  to  make 
out;  he  falls  in  with  two  Americans,  to  whom  lie  shows  his 
map,  and  they  manage  to  locate  the  probable  spot  designated 
on  the  chart.  The  four  start  in  search  of  the  treasure,  and 
have  many  thrilling  and  startling  adventures  both  on  land  and 
on  sea,  the  locality  of  the  action  being  for  the  most  part  the 
picturesque  little  French  colony  of  St.  Pierre-Miquelon,  off  the 
south  coast  of  Newfoundland. 

TOMMY  TODDLES.  Illustrated  by  PETER  NEW 
ELL.  16rno,  Cloth,  $1  25. 

There  is  plenty  of  droll  fun  in  this  book.  .  .  .  We  pity  the 
person  who  can  refuse  to  grin  at  some  of  the  jocund  surprises, 
sprung  like  steel-traps  by  the  story's  comical  turns,  preposter 
ous  as  it  is. — Independent,  N.  Y. 

TRACK  ATHLETICS  IN  DETAIL.  Compiled 
by  the  Editor  of  "  Interscholastic  Sport "  in 
HARPER'S  ROUND  TABLE.  Illustrated  from  In 
stantaneous  Photographs.  Svo,  Cloth,  $1  25. 
(In  Harper's  Round  Table  Library.] 

Of  decided  interest  and  just  as  decided  value. — Brooklyn 
Times. 

Indispensable  to  every  aspirant  for  athletic  honors. — 
Philadelphia  Bulletin. 

NEW  YORK   AND  LONDON: 

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